Kurdo Baksi was one of Stieg’s few really close friends. They called each other ‘little brother’ and ‘big brother’. Stieg’s death was a great loss to him. Not long after Steig died, he became one of the widely-read crime writers, and this has led to ...
Kurdo Baksi was one of Stieg’s few really close friends. They called each other ‘little brother’ and ‘big brother’. Stieg’s death was a great loss to him. Not long after Steig died, he became one of the widely-read crime writers, and this has led to increased curiosity as to who Steig Larsson really was. Kurdo Baksi adds an important bit to that jigsaw puzzle.
“In many respects, Stieg will always be seen as rather an enigma. It was quite simply a part of his personality. But few people have at the same time so generously shared themselves with others. I think that he was often regarded as an inexhaustible source. He gave, and we were many who willingly received.” Kurdo Baksi
Few readers know who Stieg Larsson really was, and that he had previously written a great deal – articles and books of a completely different type than the crime novels featuring Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander.
Now, Stieg’s ‘little brother’ Kurdo Baksi has decided to write a sort of personal biography of his close friend. It has taken him almost five years to gather the courage and strength to write about the Stieg he knew.
They were two friends who often had to cover for each other, always concerned to protect their private lives since they lived under continuous threat from neo-nazi groups.
Kurdo describes their cooperation, their many and long discussions, Stieg’s enormous capacity for work, his energy and richness of ideas, but also the worry about his health and his uncompromising sides and stubbornness which sometimes put obstacles in his own way. Kurdo also describes Stieg’s work at the TT press agency and how his great interest in crime fiction tempted him to write.
This book gives voice and substance to Stieg Larsson, and we gain a unique insight into who he was both as a man and as a writer.
Kurdo Baksi, born 1956, is a Swedish political debater and writer with a Kurdish background. He was born in Batman, a town in eastern Turkey/ northwestern Kurdistan and came to Sweden in 1980 together with his parents and four siblings.
In 1987, Baksi started the anti-racist magazine Svartvitt. For five years, from 1998 to 2003, Svartvitt helped the anti-extremist magazine Expo to survive by cooperation. Baksi is active in the public debate and as a lecturer in questions concerning immigration, integration and xenophobia.
Rights sold to world English rights MacLehose Press, Denmark Modtryk, Norway Gyldendal, Holland Bruna, Italy Marsilio, Spain Destino, Catalan Columna, Germany Wilhelm Heyne, Korea Arte Books.
Press voices:
‘There will likely be other, more ambitious biographies of Larsson, but this first short memoir identifies key elements in Larsson’s personal life. In Baksi’s book, we recognize the deep wellsprings of Larsson’s work’ Iain Finlayson, The Times
‘a short memoir that seeks to reveal the many facets of a man who was first a human rights activist, then a journalist and only latterly, and in his spare time, a novelist’ Time Out
‘For a man who devoted his life to fighting inequality in Swedish society especially for immigrants to Sweden and the fight to "win the peace" against right wing groups, this title has caused some discussion. This lucid and encouraging book, written by his long time friend and publisher of Larsson's magazine Expo, shines a candid searchlight on Larsson. It shows the strengths and passions Larsson had for the causes he unrelentingly fought and in so doing reveals the ideas and issues which provide the brilliance of the books. To understand the books is to understand the author.’ David J Dickson, Journal of the Law Society of Scotland