That was 2003. Since then, Henning Mankell, Liza Marklund, everything available in English by Amaldur Indridason and other splendid Nordic writers sit on my shelves. And it goes without saying that I have read Stieg Larsson -- devoured him actually -- like millions of others, reading deep into the night.
So to my dismay, I continue to see stories in American newspapers about Larsson as if he is the latest thing to find, or worse, to look for: I first heard of Larsson in 2008 when he, post mortem, showed up in the German weekly Der Spiegel. He was a phenomenon in Europe already, eagerly read on subways, lovingly passed from friend to friend, a bestseller after his death in 2004, and a story in his own right. Google him and you will find old forum posts in which people in multiple languages are posting about when the next book would published in Dutch, French, or lastly, agonizingly, in English -- and breathlessly speculating about more to come.
Recently, articles about another Scandinavian mystery writer, Jo Nesbo, on his book tour in the US, are popping up everywhere. Everyone, if you believe these articles, thinks, or at least hopes, he is the next Larsson. He isn't but no American newspaper can seem to resist The Comparison. Here is a choice selection in recent weeks:
"Crime novelist goes to dark side of Scandinavia": "The Snowman," his fifth book in the series about detective Harry Hole, was just released in the U.S., after being a bestseller for three months in Britain, where Nesbo has been compared to another Scandinavian crime writer, the late Stieg Larsson," writes the Associated Press.
"Jo Nesbo could be poised for a breakthrough -- He could become the king of Nordic noir": "A vacuum has recently opened: Swedish novelist Henning Mankell just retired his brilliant sad-sack detective Kurt Wallander, and Stieg Larsson, whose Millennium novels have sold almost 50 million copies worldwide, died in 2004. What's a reader to do" wonders the Los Angeles Times.
(Do they mean Europe when they write, "could be poised for a breakthrough?" Here, Nesbo has sold nine millions books. Maybe that isn't significant enough to equal "a breakthrough.")
The Star in New Jersey had this to offer: "Stamped prominently on the cover of the new novel by Jo Nesbo is the news that millions of crime readers have eagerly awaited. Here, it proclaims, is 'the next Stieg Larsson.' Of course, wishing it so and making it so are altogether different things."
The Washington Post couldn't even wait for a few paragraphs to get to The Comparison before going on breathlessly: "Jo Nesbo, the next Stieg Larsson? Norway's bestseller is no fan of the thought": "OSLO - Lo, have we found him?...Have we journeyed so long and so patiently to at last spot the rare and precious specimen that publishers speak of in hushed and desperate tones? Have we found .?.?. the next Stieg Larsson?
It's so annoying.
As Nesbo finishes up his North American tour, he is probably tired of being compared to The Man. Those of us in Europe know better. We know that Nesbo is a star writer is his own right. His protagonist, Harry Hole, is better compared with Mankell's Wallander than Lisbeth Salander, and that is if you must make comparisons.
Nesbo is just as famous in Scandinavia and in the rest of Europe as Mankell is worldwide (outside of America). Mankell's publisher told me a few years ago that he has long had a problem getting recognition in the American market but he is far bigger than Larsson: He still sells out appearances in Germany and even the BBC made productions of his books. Not many writers can boast that.
It's tragic that my American friends who wanted Nesbo's Harry Hole books had to have me bring them over (ditto with Larsson a few years ago) until now.
Worse still are these news articles that lack context: No correspondent in Europe would have ever compared Nesbo to Larsson. We would tell readers that Nesbo is well-known across Europe, that Larsson is pretty much a household name and has been for years; that many wait with bated breath for more of these books to be translated into English -- Nesbo's first books don't exist in English and his Hole series was translated out of order; Larsson was translated into German, Dutch and French first, maybe because they had an hungry, informed audience waiting.
Maybe if newspapers coughed up the money for thoughtful coverage from abroad, and used reporters already familiar with the landscape, there might not be such bizarre coverage. And maybe Larsson (and Nesbo) might have been translated, and therefore discovered, sooner.
But take heart: Slate's piece has the good sense to refrain from The Comparison: "Why Jo Nesbo's Books are So Addictive."
They are, and they aren't by Stieg Larsson.
-- Jabeen Bhatti, Berlin
