Lisbeth Salander fans...there could be more! Apparently there is truth to the rumors about the existence of a manuscript for another book in the best-selling Millennuim series by Stieg Larsson. So far the series is a trilogy. However, the newly discovered manuscript may be the fifth book in the series, not the fourth. For fans of the series, which features a badass, bisexual female computer hacker and a male journalist with feminist tendencies, this could be great news if the manuscript sees the light of day.
In an interview on CBS broadcast on Sunday, Larsson's brother Joakim confirmed that the manuscript is for the a fifth book. “I got an e-mail from Stieg 10 days before he died, where he said that book four is nearly finished,” Joakim Larsson said in the interview, which also included his father, Erland.
“To make it more complicated, this book No. 4 — that’s book No. 5,” he added. “Because he thought that was more fun to write.”
The three books already published - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - became a publishing phenomenon with tens of millions of copies in print, and Larsson did not live to even see them published. He died of a heart attack at the age of 50 in 2004. The books have all gone on to be made into Swedish films starring Noomi Rapace as the title character and American reimaginings of the films are currently in the works.
Larsson had said he wanted there to be 10 books in the series, and was in the middle of a manuscript at the time of his death.
Under Swedish law, his family was awarded control of his estate, not his long time companion Eva Gabrielsson. Gabrielsson, who declined comment to CBS, reportedly has possession of a laptop that contains the unfinished manuscript.
Paul Bogaards, spokesman for the American publisher of the Millennium series, Knopf, said he believed in the existence of the unpublished manuscript but was unsure whether it was intended as the fourth or fifth book.
Whether the manuscript will ever be published is yet another question. Dependent upon the plot, and substance of the story, there is a possibility that it could be published as the fourth book of the series, even if it was actually intended to be the fifth book.
According to CBS, the Larssons have said that they will not allow the book to be published.
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