Fourth Larsson novel rumours dismissed

Fourth Larsson novel rumours dismissed NEWS

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Rumours of a fourth novel from Swedish author Stieg Larsson, writer of the Millennium trilogy, have been dismissed by his partner as untrue.

Eva Gabrielsson, partner of the late Stieg Larsson, told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour that 'there's the beginning of a fourth novel', but not enough material for one to exist.

'I would estimate it to be about 200 pages, given what I saw in late August during our last vacation, and given what I knew of Stieg's workload in his last two months' Gabrielsson said.

Larsson died in 2004 of a heart attack at 50 years of age. Larsson and Gabrielsson were together for 32 years though under Swedish law, she was not entitled to anything from his estate as they were unmarried and there was no valid will.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest have sold 27m copies collectively and the prospect of a fourth book had excited fans.

'It probably doesn't hang together. Stieg was a spontaneous writer, he could write scenes and not knit them together until later on - he just liked the scene. You can't call it a novel.' Gabrielsson said.

Since Larsson's death, Gabrielsson has been locked in a legal battle against the author's father and brother, who inherited Larsson's estate.

Gabrielsson explained in the Radio 4 Woman's Hour why she felt entitled to gain control over his literary legacy: 'Lots of the thoughts and ideas that went into Millennium weren't Stieg's but were mine. So I do have a grip on what's in there.

'Some things are purely mine in that book, some things are his and some things are ideas and things we developed together.'

Gabrielsson was offered a settlement in 2009 of nearly £2m in 2009 and a seat on the board of the company that now controls her late partner's works, she declined the offer.

Larsson died before the Millennium Trilogy was published and Gabrielsson said 'he would have have objected strongly' to change the name of the book when it was released outside of Sweden, from Men Who Hate Women to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

She went on to say he 'would have been extremely surprised' at the success of his books, as Larsson reportedly wrote them for his own pleasure and had no wish to get them published until shortly before his death.

Gabrielsson has written a memoir called 'There Are Things I Want You to Know' About Stieg Larsson and Me and the English translation was published by Seven Stories Press this year.