>> rose: welcome to the program. to want, the extraordinary publishing phenomena of stieg larsson, the swedish writer whose books are international best-sellers. we talk we have gedin, larsson's editor and sonny mehta, the editor-in-chief of knopf. >> all three of us knew we had something really good on our hands and it was amazing because it was... he hadn't written fiction before. he had written non-fiction. and, i mean, there's quite seldom you get a landscape that is so well written. you could see that he was a very mature writer. he was a writer. >> whatever's going on is going on everywhere as far as i can make out and the eminent peruvian writer said... he said that when he came across these books, he read them with the same total fascination as he

read duma and hugo and dickens. he said he turned the pages as fast as he was turning them... as he remembered turning them then with a sense of absolute anticipation. it's the story. it's the ambition of it, i think and it's the central character, lisbeth sal lann der who is... stieg larsson has produced a heroine for our time. >> rose: stieg larsson and his books for the hour, next.

captioning sponsored by rose communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. >> rose: during his lifetime, stieg larsson built a reputation in ms. liz native sweding as a journalist dedicated to denouncing the activities of extremist groups. he was also a novelist not long before his death of a heart attack in 2004 at the age of 50 he had turned in three crime novel man jew ewe scripts to his publisher. those books, known as the millennium trilogy, has since become a global publishing phenomenon, selling more than 40 million copies worldwide. the "washington post" says the trilogy ranks among those novels that expand theorizons of popular picture. the third and final book of this series, "the girl who kicked the hornets' nest," will be published in the united states on may 25. joining me to talk about this extraordinary phenomenon of stieg larsson, his life and his work, eva gedin, larsson's

editor and publisher at in order stedz in sweden and sonny mehta, editor of knopf and chairman of the knopf/doubleday publishing group. i'm here to have them here to talk about this remarkable kind of publishing event. norstedts. have you seen anything like this before? >> well, i've seen it with "harry potter," stephanie meyer, maybe. i haven't participated in this, to the best of my recollection. it's an amazing feeling for us. >> rose: take us to the heart of this. what is going on? well, whatever's going on is going on everywhere, as far as i can make out and the eminent peruvian writer said... he said that when he came across these

books he read them with the same total fascination as he read dumas and hugo and dickens. he said he turned the pages as fast as he remembered turning them then with a sense of absolute anticipation. it's the story. it's the ambition of it and it's the central character. lisbeth salander, who is... stieg larsson has produced a heroine for our time, i think. an extraordinary figure. >> rose: a heroine for our time? >> yeah, i think that's a way of saying it. i mean, yes, she's a fantastic character. she's sort of a superhero and we hadn't seen so many of them in crime fiction and she's extraordinary in any way or every way. and it's funny that he actually was inspired by a famous

children's book writer, quite famous children's writer, astrid and pippy long stocking. and he had this beginning of what would pippi longstocking be like when she grew up. >> rose: and lis sbet what she would be like when she grew up in his imagination? >> yes. >> rose: so what who was this man that create this character who has captured the imagination of the readers of the world. who was he? >> yeah, who was he? i didn't actually know him before he came to our publishing house with the manuscript but i know of his work at expo. >> rose: his magazine. >> yeah. but he was a very... he was a totally engaged in in all those

questions of discrimination. he was against all kinds of discrimination. >> rose: you mean extremism and... >> yeah. >> rose: fanaticism? >> yeah. and he started really early and he started his research on right extreme movements in the '70s. he was quite young then. >> rose: but take me to this. we'll come back to the shaping influences of his life and his own saga. but these manuscripts arrive. >> yes. >> rose: was it two and a half or was it spree in >> it was two but he said "i'm nearly finished with the third one." >> rose: okay. and whoever read them first... >> it was me and my boss at that time, the publisher at norstedts and one of our readers, a former publisher, actually, at norstedts who has read

everything and introduceed a writer, for example... >> rose: so when you think read it, these manuscripts, what did you say? >> yeah, we said... >> rose: "it might work?" >> we were quite... all three of us knew that we had something really good on our hands and it was amazing because he hadn't written fiction before, he had written non-fiction and, i mean, there's quite seldom you get a manuscript that is so well written. you could see that he was a very mature writer. >> rose: and what stage did you enter this game? >> i... (laughs) i entered this game comparatively late. i believe it was probably 2007 or something, which was two years after you published. at the frankfurt book fare when

everyone was talking about this swedish noveled that had just taken scandinavia by storm and another swedish publisher not involved with norstedts suggested that i ought to pay attention to it. so i read it then and then we both... >> rose: you read in the frankfurt? >> i started reading in the frankfurt and i brought it back with me and completed reading it in new york and we were lucky enough to buy it a month later. >> rose: but is sonny mehta a genius who saw this would have an american market or did everybody bid on it and you... >> everybody bid on it. there was kind of a spirited auction and we, i'm glad to say, prevailed. >> rose: and it's exceeded far beyond your expectations? >> oh, absolutely. it's what i hoped was going to happen because this is not the most hospitable country for

works in translation and it's really... i thought... i was... i did wonder whether we were going to be the only country failed to sort of make a success of stieg larsson. >> rose: you wondered about that because? >> it's not particularly... this place isn't... >> rose: america. >> it's a crowded market place, there's a great deal of pressure on a certain type of commercial writing over here and the idea of a foreign writer, a swede to sort of bust into the charts in the kind of the way that he has everywhere else, we didn't know that we were going to do it. we hoped. we thought the book was good enough. >> rose: >> did you have any help with the success in europe? >> well, we did, i think one of the things that gave us a bit of a push in the beginning were all the bloggers who had heard about it and were telling each other about it and were waiting for

the book in some way. >> rose: do bloggers today play a real role in the marketing and... t appreciation of books? >> i think they do. i think they talk to each other digitally. >> rose: now here's the book. 750,000... >> about, yes. >> rose: publication date is... the 25th. >> rose: 25th of may. >> yup. >> rose: and there will be a second printing and a third printing you hope? >> i hope so, the first couple of books went through sort of 15 16 printings and i hope we're going to go through a great many more. >> rose: what has the movie done to the book? >> well, the movie came much later, so we had already sold a lot of books. >> rose: but did it create a whole other wave of... >> yeah, it did. and you can see that it has... since it's been distributed all over europe, the swedish film version has been released in...

everywhere. and you can really see that it has created a second wave and it's... so it's still selling very well. >> rose: in your imagination, does this... >> no. >> rose: no what? >> i could never have... i could never have expected that it would be as huge as this. we really believed in these books. if this was the question you were going to ask. >> rose: no, but i like yours any way. go ahead. >> so we had great hopes but you could never imagine that it would be such... now it's just a phenomenon. and it's very hard to say... >> rose: is it good writing? >> it's really good. it's good. it's good in its genre, i think it's really good. >> rose: and for those who might suggest that, gee, he was not that good a writer, what would

you say? >> it's not that many who... >> rose: so it's an exception? >> yeah, it's an exception. and if you look at the reviews he haven't really got nearly any bad reviews anywhere. >> rose: but when they say it's not... that he may not have been that good a writer, they're suggesting someone else wrote it? >> someone else wrote them. but i've read other stuff by stieg larsson and so... >> rose: fiction? >> no. articles and his non-fiction and you could clearly see that it's the same voice and the same sort of pitch that he has. >> rose: his life is as interesting has he writes about. >> rose: yeah. and then i think... i don't know if you agree, but when you work as closely, as an editor you work quite closely with an author and you would sort of immediately know or have a feeling if the author didn't know this text.

he hadn't written this text. and stieg knew everything in detail of what he had. >> rose: what did he talk about? >> well, actually since i had those bunchs of manuscripts we were just very focused on getting started and he was eager to hear. he wanted... he was quite... really easy to work with because he said give me all your comments you have and i know this could be done better and please bring out your red pen and make marks everywhere and i'd be willing to discuss everything. >> rose: sounds like the perfect writer if you're an editor. >> and it sounds like you're lying, or making the story better. but he was really nice working with and very... because he was... he edited his colleagues' text so he was used to that kind of... >> rose: at the magazine? >> yeah, at the magazine.

so he said "i have no problem with that at all." so the only thing we did discuss was the title in swedish of the first book. >> rose: and he wanted the title to be? >> the title... or it was. >> it was titled but he said those titles are all we can discuss. he had a name for the series in the beginnings who said the books were manuscripts and the folders were named "men who hate women one, two, and three." and then he said i think the first book should have that title "men who hate women." and i said, no, i don't think so. we immediate to discuss this. and then... he said, okay, let's think about this. and i said yeah, i'll come up with some alternative. >> rose: and was the alternative "the girl with the dragon tattoo"? >> no, that came later but i think it's a good title and i think he would have... it's very common that you change titles.

>> rose: so you hadn't agreed on that before he died? >> yeah, we agreed... he said... well, there's only one thing that i won't compromise, the first book needs to have that title. >> so in sweden it had that title? >> yes, in sweden it has. but then i thought of... i put his name quite large on the cover and then i made... a very nice cover which looks like a magazine so it's sort of a headline. it's made as a magazine cover so you could read "men who hate women" it's more like a magazine typographical... so we solved it in that. >> rose: how many... there's another novel that's partially finished in his computer somewhere. >> there's a rumor. i keep hearing about this but i don't know and i don't know that anybody knows for sure, do they? >> well, his girlfriend would know, wouldn't she? >> well, i don't... >> rose: live-in girlfriend.

>> i just know what i myself read in the newspapers. >> rose: are you serious? something this big you just know what you read in the newspapers? >> yeah, but we never had the time to discuss it. it was clear that stieg would be able and wanted to write many more books and since we met in march, 2004 and we had three books, we had a job to do for quite a while so we weren't in a hurry to talk about the fourth and the fifth and the sixth. but it was clear that he was sort of... would go on writing but then the story about the eventual... fourth manuscript came up after his death and so i didn't know that he had written and i haven't seen it so i would say it's... for me it's quite... >> rose: it doesn't exist until you see it. >> no. >> rose: (laughs)

have you... >> have i seen it? >> rose: have you talked to anybody that has seen it? >> yes. >> rose: who? >> well several of his family members. >> rose: say there is a novel in a computer? >> yeah, but they say a bit different things. there's 200 pages, there's 250 pages. and so i... you can... i cannot comment on it since i haven't seen it myself. >> rose: all right. this one, some are saying, is the best. do you think it's the best? >> i think it is. the point is actually, charlie, what to me makes this his whole accomplishment is that it changes... you read the third one, it changes your understanding of book one and book two and you realize the architecture that he'd conceived for the three books as a whole. it makes you understand. so you see that's what he was getting at. i found myself saying that. >> rose: that's quite important

because he described... i mean, i suppose you understand it's quite extreme that a first-time author is not sort of rushing to the publishing house with his first manuscript when he's ready. he just goes on writing. it's really... that's quite normal. so... but what he said when we talked about the project the first time, he said "this is a trilogy." "why did you just go on writing?" he said "i have this story and it goes through these three books." so it's sort of... >> it's developed, really... well, each book is... each novel is free standing, if you take the nols sequentially, it adds so much meaning, i think, the third book to the first and the second. >> rose: what does it add? >> he's talking about the state of... he's talking about

corruption both moral and other and he's talking about the way the state may or may not have condoned it and this becomes kind of clear as you reach the conclusion of lisbeth salander's story. i mean, there's a woman who has been victimized... >> rose: she was thrown into a mental institution. >> certainly was. and you realize the extonight which almost every facet of the state was implicated in how she was treated. >> rose: i mean, he almost... >> and of course she surpasses it all. >> rose: he hated these fascist groups, but he also... there was a touch of libertarianism in his as well. >> i believe so. he hated... there's a big, big... i mean, he was a feminist from a very early age and he was

a severe anti-fascist. >> rose: how does someone, a male like him, write this sort of stunning female character? >> that so many women who've seen the... read the books or seen the movie talk to me about. their reaction. how they felt when they got to meet liz beth in in the books. >> rose: >> but he had this idea. he talked quite a lot about this. that he thought of... he switched the role so he that that he might mikheil blomkvist more feminine and salander more... traits that would be more male, sort of. and he played with that. >> rose: well, he did. >> yeah. and so he was really... i think he was... this was a specific idea he had from the beginning to have a couple who who had...

where he had played... >> rose: describe the character blomkvist. >> well, blomkvist is more of a... maybe... well, he's the investigative journalist who works at millennium, his own magazine. >> rose: read: expo. >> rose: >> yeah, it has great similarities. >> rose: and blomkvist read larsson. >> yeah. well, you can say salander is larsson as well. >> rose: salander is larsson as woman? >> yeah, but she... because, for example, she's... she has this... well, she has a photographic memory but stieg remembered everything he had read or people had said to him. he had this fantastic take for remembering details and he was a fantastic researcher.

that was what he did. he researched the right wing extreme movements. he was the one who knew most about those movements in scandinavia and europe so i think... well, that's the way it works. you put a little bit of yourself in several characters when you write novels. >> exactly. >> rose: the death at age 50, heart attack. after he'd walked up seven stories. >> yeah, the elevator broke down. >> rose: and after he walked up these steps. but there are those who still believe there's some conspiracy here because of his long battle with... >> well, i should imagine... he wasn't a very popular figure with the right wing, that's my understanding. and as... i never met him, charlie, so it's really just reading the skabd knaveian papers, reading the international press.

i understand that they had... he'd been... he'd receive death threats over a long period of time and stibl both he and his partner sort of did their work under the understanding that something like this might happen to them. that they might have been attacked or take precautions. >> i think the threats were as... well, the risk was quite high in the end of the '90s. so it had calmed down a bit, but he knew exactly what he... well, he had to always look around his shoulders and i think he had this special ways of well, he booked a meeting but he never came on time, for example, and he took... when he walked home or from his... >> rose: different routes.

>> different routes and he always sat a special way in a restaurant so he could have a good view of the door. and the secret police, he had help from them in... well, in certain times. >> rose: some have said... back to the third one which sonny has spoken to, said it reads more like le carre. does it have elements of that have? >> yeah, i think you can say some elements but... >> rose: it reads like larsson to you? >> it reads like... i mean, i don't know what you say but it's really... you need to say about crime that... >> well, it's because of the things like he carry because it's the unraveling of the conspiracy and the... >> rose: and complex elements

and multiple characters. >> but, you know, it's interesting that you mention john le carry because i feel that what stieg's done in many ways, if i had to think of an equivalent, i would take le carre's smiley sequences of novels in that they... each one adds something to your understanding of the previous one. >> rose: the idea that tinker, tailor, soldier, spy were going through a life experience. >> absolutely. and you learn more of him and the events he experienced from the earlier books you see another perspective on it. tell me about his life. stieg's life. he grew up >> he grew up in the north of sweden. >> rose: with his grandparents. >> yes, because his parents got him when they were really young, 17. they couldn't find jobs in the north, they couldn't find an apartment so they had to go to

stockholm where they lived... you know, where you rent a room and so they couldn't bring stieg and they needed to make some money before coming home. so he grew up with his grandmother and grandfather the first years. and then when stieg's parents came back, actually grandparents wanted to keep him because they got so fond of him. and they lived quite near so they saw each other and then stieg moved when the grandfather died. grandmother and stieg moved with the family and they all stayed together. and then he had a little brother who was four or five years old at that time. and then he started... he was really interested in writing so he got a typewriter when he was 14. and they had to make... his parents were quite poor so they had to take a loan so they could

afford to buy this thing for their son. >> rose: the typewriter? >> the typewriter. >> rose: but then didn't they ship him off to a room somewhere else? >> because he was typing all night. he was disturbing the neighbors and they couldn't sleep so he had to go to the basement and after a while when he was 16, 17 they moved him to abapartment. >> rose: do you know anything about the family? there's this great conflict, you can see it... >> only... i understand that his partner and his father and brother. but chip mcgrath... >> rose: chip mcgrath wrote this story in this past weekend's "new york times" magazine. this is the brother and this is the father. they've now taken an office together. and there is a battle between

father, brother, and lifetime companion. >> i think everyone was quite shocked at the beginning because everyone thought that his lifetime partner would be the one who inherited the whole estate. >> rose: but there was no will. >> but there was no will and they weren't married and so... and the law said that it worked in another way and i think they all were very shocked at this. >> rose: that he left no will? >> no, that it was... he didn't plan to die. so he hadn't sort of as you can... i don't... you know, not everyone has all their papers in order. it's a thing. you think that you will... >> it will never happen to me. >> rose: and not at 50. >> the other way it's... since

stieg was had death threats on him, i suppose this... he knew that he could be if not killed but severely... >> rose: even more reason to get your things in order. >> yeah. >> rose: and what is the law in swede within respect to the man you jipt that may be in the computer? who owns that? >> it's the estate. it's stieg and... it's joachim and adam larsson. >> rose: who has possession of the computer? >> well, again, this is what i've heard and read. apparently eva says she knows where it is and she won't tell him. >> rose: (laughs) this is so good. >> "the case of the missing computer." >> but there can be a man you script somewhere, papers, and he could have made copies. but no one has sent any page to me. >> rose: no one? >> no one. >> rose: are you eager?

>> no i think actually this is what we decided to do, the three books, and this is what we signed the contract... >> rose: but you own the rights to what, three books? >> yeah. >> rose: and that's it. >> and this has been our focus to do the best with what we got. >> rose: you ever hear of james bond? (laughs) there is the phenomenon nonthat even beyond the books of ian fleming james bond lived. what happens in a circumstance like that? could liz beth be a character that continues with books even written by someone not stieg larsson? >> well, there are >> well, in the case of ludlum... >> rose: exactly, robert ludlum. >> "the bourne identity" the bourne franchise continues. but they're licensed by the estate. >> rose: the estate would license not that, not the

publisher. you only deal with three books and the estate went to the brother and the father because... >> because the law says that's how it works when you're not married. >> rose: and they've offered her according to what i made from the mcgrath piece, something equivalent to about $2 million. >> yeah. >> rose: and she's refused to take it? >> or two million euros. that's the big point. >> rose: yes, indeed. (laughs) >> this came quite recently and she refused. >> rose: why? because she thinks she'll get more or because it's not about none? >> it's not about money. >> rose: what's it about forer? >> it's about... i don't know. i think it's quite complicated and this is a very sorrowful private matter, something went wrong where from the very beginning. >> rose: between the family and the companion? >> yeah, and i think it was because they happen to come in a

situation they hadn't planned for at all. they all grieved stieg. stieg was the center in this family. the central figure, so to say. and then he dies and he... i mean, and when he died we hadn't even published the books so you have to remember that the success has compos chuplously and just increased and so... >> rose: so the sales so far have been about $40 million worth of books? >> i never... i talk about how many copies, never... >> rose: okay, copies. 40 million copys? >> 30 million copies. >> rose: 30e million cop pis. soon to be accelerated by how many americans... how about the international sales? how about china? how about india? >> it's just released in china. it has been released in india so there are still countries to

come but the sales have been fantastic everywhere. >> rose: what were his last words? >> (laughs) well, i wasn't there. >> rose: i know that! (laughs) >> do you know? i've heard story who said that... >> rose: "i'm only 50" or something. >> yeah, exactly. "i'm just 50," they ask, the ambulance personnel asked how old is he and stuff and he whispered "i'm only 508." >> rose: i was reading much more into that. i was reading that he knew he was going to die. >> so was i. >> rose: (laughs) much more than that. i want to come back to the character because we saw the movie. what did you think of the movie "the girl with the dragon tattoo"? >> i liked it. >> rose: i did, too! >> the swedish. >> rose: well, there's only been one so far. >> actually, they've completed the trilogy. >> rose: the three movies have been made. we've only seen one. >> the second one, i think, is coming out soon. i thought it was a fabulous film and i thought the actress that

place lisbeth salander is unbelievable. noomi... >> rose: in other words, whatever you imagined about the character from reading it she was that plus? >> absolutely. she channeled her tomly. >> rose: she channeled her? >> well, yeah. noomi rapace is a genius. she made... no one else could have... i mean, it's going to be hard for the next salander to come because noomi made her... >> rose: she did the three of them, snow >> yeah, she's salander in all the three films. >> roll tape, just in case you have not seen this movie, which is done quite well, too, i understand. here it is.

>> rose: we talked about this idea that larsson put into her... he sort of... a mixed gender. did he ever talk about that? >> yes. >> rose: a lot? >> yeah, he was quite... you know... >> rose: this is what i'm trying to do? >> yeah, he was really happy to... he was, you know, he said also that he made a slut of mikael blomkvist. so he was sort of... if you read the books, it's more... there are more women around mikael blomkvist around the book than in the film version. >> rose: see, that's... >> so he's sort of giving himself to the woman. he's not the typical... he thinks... and we had some

discussions about that, how that worked in the book. >> rose: and, those discussions sfwhr >> well, i thought maybe he would... >> cut him down a bit. >> he was more like a normal casanova. but... and he sort of... he does... in stieg's mind, he satisfies all these women and me loves women and they can look whatever and they can be old or... you know, or younger or fat or small. he likes them all and he gives of himself to women. and he... and stieg says, with a smile, "i have created the male slut." and it's very... >> rose: had you heard that before? >> i heard heard that. >> rose: i just love this. >> that he was a tremendously... he made him... he made blomkvist very promiscuous queues you. >> rose: was that like he was? >> i don't think so. i don't think you can find a whole personality in one

character. it doesn't work like that. >> rose: but you wanted to tone down the promiscuity because... >> no, i just... there was... it was because of the casanova effect of it that you need to... i mean every woman around mikail blomkvist in the books falls in love with him in one or the other way. even one girl at millennium who is quite non-affected by him in the end she, too, has to succumb. >> rose: so there is romance here. there is crime here. n these novels. there's a brilliant female character, a sort of gender transference, and then finally there's politics. that's a pretty potent mix. >> rose: it certainly is. >> but then again he was a great

crime reader. he read a lot of crime. not a lot of swedish or scandinavian crime. >> rose: >> a lot of british and american crimes. >> rose: like what? >> well, a lot of crime writers, val mcdermott, elizabeth george, sara par rhett ski... >> rose: and what was he looking for in reading female crime writers. >> well, he wasn't specific about it. >> i should imagine it was his relaxation as much as anything else. and, of course, there is the whole idea of a lot of crime and corruption of one sort or the other. and clearly it was one of the subjects that fascinated him. it was... i think his... his novels are really about hypocrisy. >> rose: and then i think he had... he had this... he didn't... he wanted to do

something else in swedish crime, although he told me he never read swedish crime, he didn't think it was good enough and he said "i will never create a figure with... who drinks a fat middle age man who drinks a bit too much." >> rose:ly never create a character like that. >> "who wears a trench coat and...to opera. i will do something different." >> rose: so describe for us the character he created, blomkvist. >> well, then what he did was he created this perfect couple to... >> rose: ah! >> and, salander is something totally different from the typical either police man or journalist that you see. >> rose: see, what makes that interesting to me is that in the ent even though she is the penetrating character, it is the combination of the two that

takes it to another level. >> rose: it is. and it's also that they're both searching, they're both investigative journalists. one is a hacker and the other one is the guy with the eye shade who does it the old-fashioned way. >> i thought it was a nice touch that he made her a hacker, a great hacker, and it gave the notion of investigation a whole other dimension to explore. >> and it's quite fascinating to think he wrote these manuscripts in the beginning 2000 because he writes about technical things that i didn't know how they worked with when i read the manuscript in 2004 and we have this research to read the technical parts. you know, and everything was perfect so he... well, stieg knew a lot of things. he was really interested in

technique and computers although his colleagues say he couldn't manage a computer. >> rose: he was interested in it but he couldn't use them. >> exactly. he knew everything what you could do but he couldn't really use them. >> rose: because critics have talked about the detail in these books. yes, sonny? you've read them. >> yes, i have and sometime n some i've find the detail overwhelming because there is a lot of it. >> rose: "overwhelming" meaning he wrote too much. (laughs) >> some people have said that, i don't think he wrote enough myself. >> rose: really. (laughs) >> yeah. but at the same time they are real page turners. they're true page turners. and that's amazing how you could combine those two so well. >> rose: it's just quite amazing to me. >> rose: i think it makes them very truthful that he's so specific and he shows that if he

so describes the floweror... political matters or. >> rose: i want to read you two things. one is from "time" magazine. everybody is writing about this. not only the reviews but everybody... this thing has gone to another level of curiosity. fair to say, sonny? >> absolutely. with the success of the second book in paper back, which has only been out about a month, we've... this trilogy is sort of discovering readers all the time. i mean, it's extraordinary. >> rose: more extraordinary than that, it now has scott rudin, the producer. he bought that... the rights from... >> yellow bird. so he's going to make "the girl with the dragon tattoo" as an american film? do we know what he's going to do with it? we can find out. >> rose: >> we'll see. >> rose: but, i mean, he must have... >> he's going to have a hard time... he's probably casting it

because i believe he's... the early news is that they're looking to release in the 2011. >> rose: this is about... chuck mcgrath wrote the piece and he's talking about that they now in sweden... when you come to sweden, you can take a tour of everything having to do do with stieg larsson's life. >> well, there's the city tours where you can walk. >> rose: and you see where he lived and you see the scenes in the novel. >> it's the scenes from the novel. it's not stieg's personal spots. it's from the books. from the millennium trilogy. >> rose: listen to this, this is "time" magazine. "fans hunger for the missing millennium novels have seized on the legal drama surrounding them as a substitute but it's a poor one. if larsson was writing the story gabrielsson would emerge from the fray in a satisfying blaze of vindication, undreplt of legal wrinkle or computer hackery. but the reality will probably be slower and messy and it's

unlikely to leave anybody completely satisfied. it's a strange afterlife for a man who never cared much about money--" which is true? although he said later quoting mcgrath that he told a friend at some point i'll become a millionaire because i'll write these novels. >> well, he had these two sides. >> rose: two sides are? >> well, he could cope without money because he had all his life and still he had this dream that he would earn a lot of money. would be able to do that and he would have done great things, i think, with money. he wouldn't have bought expensive things for himself. he would have done the right thing. >> rose: but let me just nail this down. he believed that he would be very successful before they were published and before he died? >> yeah, i think this is one of the reasons why he wasn't eager to go to a publisher to hear ha

what he had written wiz good. he believed in it. but he could have taken it, i suppose if it was turned down. but he had this dream and he was... i have understood that great ideas about everything. some things failed and some was successful but i think... >> rose: i want to see one scene. this is from "the girl with the dragon tattoo", the movie that exists. it's the first of three and then more later to come from scott rudeen in which mikheil tracks down lisbeth after... she's played by noomi rapace, after he discovers she's been spying on him. so this remarkable couple at the center of the movie and these three novels, you'll see them together as one filmmaker imagined them. roll tape.

>> rose: did you like the movie in >> yeah, i loved... i think the first one was amazing and i think they've done a great job. actually i think... all... stieg's publisher and the filmmakers, the swedish filmmakers have been totally... wanted to do the best and have been very thorough and... well, taken very good care of books and films. >> rose: let me ask both of you this before we close. is there a difference in the way

women respond to these books than men? >> i'm not really sure about that: in sweden i think it's quite equal. i hear that same kind of comments from both. and what's amazing is there's a great range from... i mean older people and younger people and everyone is fascinated by lisbeth salander. she's... i mean, everyone is talking about her. she's sort of the main thing. >> rose: does she remind you of fish... you were going to say? >> no, i think that's... it is lisbeth salander and i think she dblg... it's a transgenerational appeal. i think it's also a transgender appeal. i think everybody... she's such an extraordinary sort of creation. fictional creation. >> rose: but having said all that, add to who she is and what she is and why she's that. >> because i think one of the

things that makes... one is she's a doer. two, she's without self-petty. >> rose: exactly. which i love. >> and actually great achievement of the film is that it doesn't sentimentalize her. because she refuses to feel sorry for herself. >> and she don't want anyone to feel sorry for her at all. >> absolutely. >> rose: and she knows how to get done what she intends to do. >> yeah, and she does it in her own way. she makes her own rules and, you know... >> rose: when the publisher came to describe the fact that this book was going to be released and that you were going to be here, all of a sudden it just... it has been much more interesting than i ever imagined. you know, and you have done this amazing job. when we sit down here to talk, i always say to guests, you know, this is a conversation so go back and forth and let it ask questions and you've done all of

that. so thank you very much. good to see you again, sonny. >> thank you. >> rose: the publication date this week, "the girl who kicked the hornets' nest," stieg larsson, the number one best-seller today in america according to the "washington post." i assume the "new york times," too, is "the girl with the dragon tattoo". is that right? >> and amazon.com, i hope. >> rose: and amazon.com we hope. thank you for joining us. see you next time. >> rose: this week, the eighth episode of our brain series. we look at the emotional brain with a focus on the negative emotion. >> you know, we know stories of heroism on the battlefield. >> yes. >> rose: in which someone goes and does something instant thains youly. they do it out of duty, out of love for their comrade. >> in part. you can't actually generate the responses so fast that you can proceed in a very heroic manner even if only midway through it

you realize what you're doing. and one thing that helps is actually... i mengsed that part of the brain stem which is orchestrating either the freezing behavior or the running away behavior. it so happens that if you're running away from a danger-- as you can be in a situation in, say, the war theater where you have to help a comrade and... you would... even if you're wounded you will actually not feel the pain because it's the same... at the same time the brain is going to spritz a bit of an opioid into the spinal cord so that you will not feel pain for a certain period of time. so this is all perfectly prepared in the response, you can stud think in a monkey, for example, it's all there and the kind of anesthesia... if you would ask a doctor right then and let me have no pain while i

do this job. so, in fact our hero schism being helped by our own physiology. >> rose: by our brain releasing certain team cals in the body. >> feel-good chemicals. >> including adrenaline that helps you lift up something you never realized you were able to do. >> exactly. >> i think the other point, the great quote that courage is not lack of fear but acting in the face of it. >> rose: exactly. >> and partly what our behavioral responses are. >> feel the fear, do it anyway.