“The girl with the dragon tattoo”, “Τhe girl who played with fire” and “Τhe girl who kicked the hornet’s nest” are the three detective novels that constitute the trilogy Millennium, which was written by the Swedish author Stieg Larsson. During the last years the books have been at the top of the readers’ preferences and the 27 million copies that have been sold in over 40 countries verify it.

I believe all book lovers can agree that there is no greater pleasure than reading a book under a shade in a beautiful beach. This is the ultimate form of relaxing summer holidays for me, especially if the book is good! In fact, the three books of the Millennium series are not just good; they are exceptional for their kind! The writer of the series is the Swedish journalist and graphic designer Stieg Larsson and his life story is as interesting as his books.

The heroes and the books

The main characters in the trilogy are Lisbeth Salanter, a tiny Swedish girl that is portrayed as extremely introverted and antisocial with violent behavior, with a unique gift for technology and a photographic memory; and Mikael Blomkvist, a perceptive journalist and publisher of a revelatory and independent magazine, the Millennium. The two heroes get involved in adventures, they are called to solve mysterious disappearances and murders and reveal sexist scandals, that are unique to the seemingly quiet and untouched Swedish society. It is a classic struggle between good and evil, justice and unjustice, equality and inequality. The protagonists fight for victory, they are transformed into heroes and offer the catharsis that all readers of detective novels are looking for.

The plot of the book evolves in a masterful way and all characters are complete in every respect. The relations between them reveal a wide range of the Swedish reality, its introversion, its diligence, its priority for human rights and equality, but also the hidden side of Nazism and misogynism that lurks.

The reader identifies him/herself with the characteristics of the heroes and participates in the action that is often overwhelming. More specifically, “The girl with the dragon tattoo” describes the effort of Lisbeth Salanter and Mikael Blomkvist to complete the puzzle of the disappearance of a girl, descendant of one of the richest families in Sweden.

The second book in the trilogy, “The girl who played with fire” basically tells the reasons why Salanter grew to become such a violent and antisocial character due to  her involvement in a triple murder. The third book of the series, “The girl who kicked the hornet’s nest” is an excellent courtroom drama which describes the efforts of the genius hacker and the fighting journalist to reveal a political-military scandal. All kinds of action in one trilogy!

The author Stieg Larsson

When he was 15 years old, Stieg Larsson witnessed a gang rape of a girl in the village he was growing up in northern Sweden. The fact that he could not help her -according to his biography written by his partner Eva Gabrielsson- is the basis for the formation of his character, for his sensitivity and fight for gender equality in Sweden and particularly for the issue of violence against women. What is memorable about the author of the enormously successful series Millennium is that he was not a professional writer. He was writing his books after work for almost one decade for his own pleasure and he was not interested in publishing them until only shortly before his sudden death in 2004. Stieg Larsson died of a heart attack at the age of 50 and did not live to see the huge success of his novels…

i.n. The Swedish film production company Yellow Bird in collaboration with the Danish Nordisk Film and TV company made all three books of the Millennium series into movies and released them in Scandinavia in 2009. I admit that I immediately went to find them, but unfortunately they left me rather disappointed. Besides the first movie that can be considered quite good, the next two were too boring for action movies.  The books are expected to be transformed into films also by the pioneers of the kind in Holywood. Let’s see…

Zoe Volioti – Artivist Team
zoi@artivist.gr

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