MacLehose Press unveils New Dragon Tattoo Title, The Girl in the Eagles Talons

 

Maclehose Press have announced that the English-language title for the much-anticipated 7^th novel in the Millennium series by Swedish author Karin Smirnoff will be The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons. It will be translated by Sarah Death, the award-winning translator of Selma Lagerlöf and Tove Jansson. Total sales figures for all six Millennium books, by Stieg Larsson and David Lagercrantz, have hit over 100 million copies worldwide across all editions and languages.

In a huge global event, The Girl in the Eagle’s Talon will be published simultaneously on 29 August 2023 by MacLehose Press and in Hachette UK’s international territories, and by Knopf PRH in the US and Penguin Random House in Canada.

The Swedish hardback edition was published as Havsörnens Skrik on 4 November to huge fanfare and rave reviews. Karin Smirnoff was interviewed on live TV and radio and the novel immediately hit the coveted no.1 slots on Sweden’s major online bookselling platforms, including Ad Libris and Bokustoppen. In the first five sales days, Swedish bookshops have sold over 7000 copies of the book (in a country of 10 million). In an innovative move by Swedish publisher Polaris, the e-book and audio releases of the Swedish editions will take place a month after hardback release, on 1 December 2022.

Karin Smirnoff’s take on the Lisbeth Salander story moves the plot from Stockholm to northern Sweden, an area vast and beautiful, but also dealing with economic and social problems and the effects of climate change and environmental exploitation. Karin Smirnoff and Stieg Larsson were both born in the northern county of Västerbotten, and both writers were shaped by the stark and empty landscapes of their birthplace.

The first Swedish press reviews for Havsörnens Skrik (The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons) have poured in and are extremely positive:

Svenska Dagbladet said: “We more than approve of Smirnoff's debut as a crime novelist … what impresses is the thrilling plot, the environmental depiction, and above all the unexpected and poignant relationship between Lisbeth and [her young protégé] Svala. Something tells me that the dark tale of Millennium will continue for a long time.”

Skånska Dagbladet, one of the largest daily newspapers in Sweden, emphasised the strong feminist angle to Karin Smirnoff’s new take on the Millennium series: “A really, really good crime novel. It is also a serious and successful attempt to keep Stieg Larsson’s commitment alive and let commercial literature speak serious truths about our time.”

Nya Tidning said that “letting Karin Smirnoff take over the baton from David Lagercrantz is a stroke of genius. It is hard to believe anyone could have done it better than Smirnoff. Apart from Stieg Larsson himself”.

Västerbottenskuriren said “The connections to Smirnoff's previous books become clear. This is as it should be, as there is the feminist anger, the fundamental connection that unites her with Stieg Larsson. A connection that is, quite literally, carried through smoke and shell fire by Lisbeth and Svala together.”

The Return of Lisbeth Salander

LISBETH SALANDER AND THE ‘DRAGON TATTOO’ SERIES GIVEN NEW LIFE BY ONE OF SWEDEN’S MOST SUCCESSFUL NOVELISTS

Karin Smirnoff lives on a farm in northern Sweden, just a short car journey away from Stieg Larsson’s birth place. She is a bestselling author whose novels have sold over 700,000 copies in her home country, has a black belt in karate, and enjoys spending time with her mother and kids. But now, her life is due to change completely as she is about to become one of the world’s most famous novelists after taking on the Stieg Larsson mantel to write about one of Sweden’s most iconic women, Lisbeth Salander. With approval of the Stieg Larsson estate, Karin Smirnoff has taken on the monumental task of writing the next three books in the ‘Dragon Tattoo’ series. The first novel (number 7 in the series) is due to be published in the UK on 31 August 2023. 

Karin was born in Umeå in the north of Sweden, grew up in Stockholm, and left school at 17 to travel. Now, she has returned to her birthplace and lives on a farm which has been in her family for many decades. Karin has hinted in interviews that the main storyline for Millennium 7 (as the as-yet-untitled novel is called) will move from Stockholm and the south to the wild expanses of northern Sweden that are so familiar to her. She read the Millennium novels when the first three books came out and is familiar with the universe created by Larsson and continued by fellow Swede David Lagercrantz.

With Karin Smirnoff as the new writer of the series, and its acquisition by Katharina Bielenberg of the MacLehose Press, an imprint of Quercus Books, the series – which has sold over 100 million copies worldwide – will have a female author and publisher, with a female translator also being lined up. 

Karin Smirnoff says, “It feels almost solemn to write the sequel to Millennium. I said yes to the project without hesitation, even though it postpones my own ideas for new novels. It’s an exciting opportunity to independently create and make something new based on a unique fictional universe that is known worldwide. The Millennium books are classics in their genre, where the combination of unforgettable characters and the strong political and societal engagement still fascinates readers. I will continue to build on Stieg Larsson's core themes, such as violence, abuse of power, and contemporary political currents.” 

Katharina Bielenberg says, “The Millennium series has been a constant at MacLehose Press and
Quercus since Christopher MacLehose acquired Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo back in 2008. Everything we know about Karin Smirnoff and her work tells us she has the perfect sensibility not only to continue on from David Lagercrantz’s trilogy with great drive and imagination, but also to make the series her own. And it feels just right that Lisbeth Salander’s universe should now be brought to life by a woman. We are absolutely thrilled to be working with Karin on these next instalments.”

Jon Butler, MD at Quercus Books, says, “The Millennium series – ‘the Dragon Tattoo books’ to most people in the English-speaking world – of course constitute one of the biggest publishing stories of the last twenty years, selling over 100 million copies worldwide. Stieg Larsson’s iconic creation, and the brilliant sequels written by David Lagercrantz, reached people who rarely buy books, which is the holy grail for any publisher. So, we couldn’t be more excited to announce a new trilogy; except that I probably am more excited. Karin Smirnoff is a literary talent of the highest order, and a huge bestseller in her native Sweden. We can’t wait to launch her creation to the widest possible English-language readership next year.”

The trailer for the Millennium 7 can be watched below.

For further information, please contact Corinna Zifko, corinna.zifko@quercusbooks.co.uk / 07917 158 986. 

Symposium: Crime Fiction and the Social Contract

 

Andrew Pepper (Queen’s University Belfast); Barbara Pezzotti 

and Carlos Uxó (Monash University)

Chaired by Dr Stewart King (Monash University)

Tuesday 28 September 2021, 8-10pm Melbourne; 6-8am New York; 11am-1pm London

To register for this Zoom symposium, please click here.

Crime Fiction and the Unravelling of the Social Contract: Generic Breakdown at the End of Days - Andrew Pepper (Queen’s University Belfast, English)

In this talk, I take as my starting point the turn by a number of crime writers towards the apocalypse and apocalyptic themes: namely, Lauren Beukes’s Afterland (2021), Hanna Jameson’s The Last (2019), Deon Meyer’s Fever (2017), Hye-Young Pyun’s The City of Ash and Red (2018), Chuck Wendig’s Wanderers (2019), and Ben Winters’s The Last Policeman (2012). In part, and looking at the long history of the genre, crime fiction has always been interested in the benefits and problems of the social contract: as I have argued, even the earliest crime stories ‘end up responding to the threat of social anarchy by justifying a Hobbesian move from the state of nature into the social contract while at the same time hinting, intentionally or otherwise, at the inadequacies of the state’s provisions for law enforcement’ (Unwilling Executioner, 24). These contemporary crime/apocalypse novels allow us to think about how much and how little has changed: in response to the spectres of global pandemics, nuclear explosion and climate emergencies, the states in these novels have evolved/crumbled and with this their imperfect mechanisms for maintaining order, law and justice. As such I am interested in teasing out and interrogating three related lines of critical enquiry: first the potential to read these texts as world literature, given the global nature of the threats and the breakdown of national traditions and borders; second, the issue of how the unravelling of the social contract occasioned by the apocalyptic threat is dealt with by or within the parameters of the crime story; and third, the extent to which this social unravelling presupposes and indeed produces an unravelling of genre or at least the emergence of new hybrid forms.

How the Social Contract has Failed Women - Barbara Pezzotti (Monash University, European Languages)

Crime fiction has been long accused of being a conservative genre that reaffirms the social order and endorses a patriarchal society. This view has been challenged by a number of crime novels which successfully denounce violence against women, and the evil of patriarchal societies that feeds such violence. In my talk I will analyse the representation of gender violence and femicide in Dacia Maraini’ Voices (1997), Maria-Antònia Oliver’s Study in Lilac (2001), and Stieg Larsson’s Men Who Hate Women (2005). I will show how these crime novelists use the crime fiction genre to shift the readers’ attention from an individual crime and an individual culprit to point to a systematic failure of Western States, and the social contract that pinpoints them. Throughout their narrative, these writers historicise the evil of femicide, arguing that far from being merely a matter for psychiatrists, it has profound roots in Western culture. They describe it as a pervasive evil in contemporary society and a gangrene very difficult to eradicate as it concerns everybody, and is not only identifiable with deviant personalities. Ultimately, I show how crime fiction can act as a privileged genre for exposing how the social contract has failed women.

Maintaining the Revolutionary Social Contract: The Role of Cuban Television Police Shows - Carlos Uxó (Monash University, European Languages)

Social contract theory is concerned with the legitimacy of authority over the individual and discusses to what extent, and why, individuals consent to surrender some of their freedoms in exchange for a social order from which they benefit in one way or another, and in which they feel protected. For the social contract to work, therefore, a body of laws must be created and shared by all members of a given society. But, do all members of a society enter into the social contract consensually? And how do the authorities remind citizens of their duty to abide by the social contract? Taking these issues as my starting point, in my talk I discuss the role Cuban television police shows have played in the maintenance of the Revolutionary social contract, by constantly reminding citizens of the rules they had to follow, and the penalties they would otherwise face. To that end, I analyse the television series Tras la huella, broadcast in Cuba since 2005.

The Girl Who Lived Twice by David Lagercrantz - Final Millennium Novel

"What will you do now?"

"I shall be the hunter and not the hunted"

The girl with the dragon tattoo is finally ready to confront her nemesis, the only woman who is evidently and in many ways her match. Salander will not wait to be hunted. When she strikes it will be a double blow: vengeance for recent atrocities, and the settling of lifelong scores.

For months now Salander has been closing in on her target. She has moved from Stockholm, her hair is newly styled, her piercings are gone. She could pass for any other businesswoman. But not all businesswomen have a Beretta Cheetah beneath their jacket. They do not wield the lethal power of a hacker’s genius. They do not carry scars and tattoos to remind them that they have survived the unsurvivable.

The new episode in David Lagercrantz’s acclaimed, internationally bestselling continuation of Stieg Larsson’s Dragon Tattoo series is a thrilling ride that scales the heights of Everest and plunges the depths of Russian troll factories. It begins with the discovery of Mikael Blomkvist’s number at Millennium magazine in the pocket of an unidentified homeless man who died with the name of a government minister on his lips.

Blomkvist, at extreme risk to himself, tracks down his old friend and will protect her as far as he can. But he is powerless to crush her enemies on his own.

And for Lisbeth Salander, the personal is always political - and deadly.

The Girl Who Lived Twice will be published on 22 August 2019

Millennium VI Cover reveal - The Girl Who Lived Twice

Shots are pleased to take part in the cover reveal for the new Millennium VI novel.   The Girl Who Lived Twice is the third book in the series to be written by David Lagercrantz following The Girl in the Spider’s Web (2015) and The Girl Who Takes and Eye for and Eye (2017)

I will not be hunted, I will be the hunter!

The Girl Who Lived Twice

The eagerly awaited cover from Quercus Books imprint MacLehose Press is due to be published in 2019. 

Millennium V - Title and Cover revealed

MacLehose Press today revealed the title and the cover for the fifth book in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series, which is written by the Swedish author David Lagercrantz.

The novel will be called The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye and is translated from the Swedish by George Goulding.  The text of the novel, now complete, is embargoed until its worldwide and simultaneous publication on September 7, 2017.

David Lagercrantz will be in the U.K. from September 12-15 during which time he will be available for press interviews. He will also be available in advance from Stockholm for selected media. Please get in touch for further details.

The film of David Lagercrantz’ The Girl in the Spider’s Web (Sony Columbia), directed by Fede Alvarez, the director of 2016’s breakout thriller Don’t Breathe, is due for release on October 5, 2018. It will feature an entirely new cast, with the search for the new Lisbeth Salander currently underway, and filming is due to begin in the autumn,

David Lagercrantz is an acclaimed author and journalist. In his years on the Stockholm daily Expressen he covered many major crime stories. In 2015 The Girl in the Spider's Web, his continuation of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, became a worldwide bestseller, and it was announced that Lagercrantz would write two further novels in the series. He is also the author of the prize-winning and bestselling I am Zlatan Ibramhimovic, and Fall of Man in Wilmslow, a novel about the death of Alan Turing.

The Fifth Millennium

We were delighted to hear from Quercus Publishing’s imprint MacLehose Press with news of Book five in the Stieg Larsson series; having been avid readers and film viewers of these remarkable thrillers.

This Feature from Jeff Pierce’s The Rap Sheet has embedded links indicating our enthusiasm for the adventures of Mikael Blomkvist, and the enigmatic and deeply troubled computer hacker Lisbeth Salander

So via Quercus Publishing -

On September 7, 2017, the fifth installment of the Millennium series will be published in more than 20 countries. Once again it is David Lagercrantz who’s writing the book.

The Girl in the Spider’s Web, the fourth novel in the series, and the sequel to Stieg Larsson’s groundbreaking crime trilogy, has been published in more than 40 countries and has sold 5 million copies to date.

 Eva Gedin, Publisher at Norstedts, says:

“I have just read a first draft. It is wonderful to once again work with David Lagercrantz and a new story set in the Millennium universe. I am so impressed by David’s ability to find unexpected themes and how he can create unpredictable plots. Just like in 2015 when we published The Girl in the Spider’s Web, this new novel will be launched simultaneously around the world. And I promise, this will be just as thrilling!”

David Lagercrantz, how did the attention around The Girl in the Spider’s Web affect you?

“I couldn’t have imagined what effect the news about an upcoming fourth novel in the Millennium series would have. I thought people would shrug their shoulders and go on with their lives, instead Swedish and international media went half-crazy and the whole thing just escalated. Sure, I fantasized that the novel would become a success; I am after all a hopeless dreamer. When I struggle the most, I dream of triumphs, and most often I am disappointed. This time however I was amazed by the response.”

 How do you find the motivation to write yet another book in the series?

“Stieg Larsson created a fantastic universe that I feel continuously inspired by. During a holiday trip with my family an idea struck me and arose the same fever that I lived with when I wrote The Girl in the Spider’s Web. It is not so good for my sleep and my neurosis, but it is definitively good for my writing.”

You are donating moneys from your royalties to Läsrörelsen, the Reading Movement. Why specifically to them?

“This work to make young people read cannot be praised enough. Today more than ever, with a growing right wing populist movement and extremism. Reading and learning critical thinking are cornerstones in building our democratic future.”

About the author

David Lagercrantz was born in 1962, and is an acclaimed author and journalist. As well as numerous biographies (including the internationally bestselling I Am Zlatan Ibrahimović, for which he was the ghostwriter) he has written five novels including The Girl in the Spider’s Web.

Norstedts Reveal Swedish Title of Millennium Book V by David Lagercrantz

Swedish publishers Norstedts today revealed their title and cover for the fifth instalment in the Millennium series created by Stieg Larsson. Mannen Som Sökte Sin Sugga or The Man Who Hunted/Chased His Shadow is written by David Lagercrantz who also penned book four, The Girl in the Spider’s Web. Norstedts revealed the information on David Lagercrantz’s new Instagram account @davidlagercrantz.

Previous Swedish titles for the series translate as:

Men who Hate Women

The Girl Who Played with Fire

Castles in the Sky

What Doesn’t Kill You

MacLehose Press will reveal the English language title for the novel, which will be published worldwide on 7 September 2017, shortly.

 A short Q&A with David Lagercrantz:

David Lagercrantz, how did the attention around The Girl in the Spider’s Web affect you?

“I couldn’t have imagined what effect the news about an upcoming fourth novel in the Millennium series would have. I thought people would shrug their shoulders and get on with their lives. Instead, Swedish and international media went half crazy and the whole thing just escalated. Sure, I fantasized that the novel would become a success; I am after all a hopeless dreamer. When I find things most difficult, I dream of triumphs, and most often I am disappointed. But this time I was amazed by the response.”

How did you find the motivation to write another book in the series?

“Stieg Larsson created a fantastic universe that I feel continuously inspired by. On holiday with my family an idea struck me, and gave me the same fever that I lived with when I wrote The Girl in the Spider’s Web. It is not so great for my sleep and my neurosis, but it is definitely good for my writing.”

For interview requests and other information, please contact:

Hannah Robinson on hannah.robinson@quercusbooks.co.uk or 0203 122 7073

Corinna Zifko on Corinna.zifko@quercusbooks.co.uk or 0203 122 7066

www.maclehosepress.com