You must give in to your passions, just as you would in love or literature. David Lagercrantz (Stockholm 60), believes this. After publishing three novels in the “Millennium” saga, and propelling Lisbeth Slander into space, Stieg Larsson’s characters, Stieg Larsson, has resurrected his first literary love: Sherlock Holmes.
It is reconstructed in “Obscuritas” (Destiny), which is the first in a series of five novels that stars a bipolar, depressive and opiate-addicted aristocrat. He has his Watson in elemental noness Micaela Vargas. A young Chilean police officer, she is from Husby, a troubled neighborhood in Stockholm. She has been tortured and expelled.
Lagercrantz is slim, slow, and gesticulating. He has a passion verb, deep voice, and dark skin. He said that he was tired of being Stieg Larsson and of Salander being “too cool, complex and boring”. He said that Sherlock Holmes was “his intelligence” and “his privileged capacity to deduction” but that he disliked his arrogance and arrogance about him. He changed them to “doubt” and “weakness.” They are “the virtues of Hans Rekke,” his Nordic Holmes, Stanford professor of psychology, pianist, expert in interrogation techniques, and mired in depression “and desperately searching for clarity.”
He must find the truth about the murder of an Afghan refugee living in Stockholm, where he is both mad and genius. Lagercrantz’s novel is set in 2003, when Lagercrantz was a journalist and writer who believes “the world is broken.” “Before 9/11, we were more fortunate, but two wars began after the attack on US towers. “The economic crisis and refugee crisis, also known as the Trump era and Brexit, arrived. Today, we live in a world that is broken and have lost all hope,” says the writer.
He feels that the US actions after the attacks were “devastating” and “heartbreaking”. He said that he had reverted to past mistakes, such as resorting to torture. This is a scourge, which, along with the benefits music provides, is one of the main themes in a novel that leaps from Stockholm to Taliban Kabul, secret prisons like Guantanamo.
“Torture is useless. It is futile to find the truth. He points out that even if the tortured person is innocent, he will tell anything to save his own life. But, he will not tell any truth he doesn’t know. Lagercrantz summarizes torture as “sinister, evil, and useless” and calls the State that uses it terrorist. He also explores Vargas’ character, a Chilean-born man whose father was tortured under the Pinochet regime.
I am fascinated by beauty and how it brings joy, which the Taliban don’t support. She laments that they ban it and force women who wear it to cover their faces. She insists that they want to destroy all things that aren’t theirs, as well as everything that inspires and threatens them such beauty and music.
“It is very difficult to remain optimistic in these times,” the novelist admits. There are many deep problems. There is a great deal of polarization in the world, both ideologically and by class, which generates hatred. It is part of a disinformation strategy to try and divide the West, often from Russia. Sometimes it succeeds. He warns that he is from the post-war generation and believed they had inherited a better world. However, the current situation gives him chills because it could get worse. “I’m swept away by optimism, and I believe that Putin, arrogant and cruel, perverse and sadistic, will soon fall. He admits that he knows it is not like that. He explains that “We are living in a very destructive information warfare, we are suffocated with lies, and this is why I dream about clarity, like my character.”
While promoting his novel ‘Millennium,’ he came up with his Scandinavian Holmes. He has bittersweet feelings about it. Larsson’s material inheritance is a sad situation, with conflict between Stieg and his partner. But I prefer to see the good and that with our continuing saga. Because of the terrible reviews, I was afraid I would die when I was asked to continue the role of Salander. He says that I accepted the role and it was good for all: the characters who are still alive and the readers who will continue to enjoy Salander who will be as eternally loved as James Bond.”
Lagercrantz was best known for his biography of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the Swedish soccer player from a tough neighborhood like Husby. It was the most popular book in Swedish history and changed Lagercrantz’s life. The movie adaptation is now available. Lagercranzt smiles and says that he would be happy to do something similar with Kylian Messi or Lionel Messi. They are both from similar origins as Ibrahimovic.
He has not yet sold the rights to Obscuritas, but he does not want to learn anything about cinema. According to him, the movie based on his first ‘Millennium book and fourth in the series – What doesn’t hurt you makes you stronger’ — “is terrible and infable.” He confesses that he has learned to distrust Hollywood people, no matter how cool they appear.
