Crime stories are our version of sitting round a camp fire and telling tales. We enjoy being scared under safe circumstances. That’s why there’s no tradition of crime writing in countries that have wars.
Northern Sweden holds a special kind of magic. It’s cold, lonely, and the people are tough and silent, or so the stereotype says. This is Asa Larsson’s home turf and I find as much joy in reading her closely observed descriptions of the environment, as in following her intriguing plots.
If I can hit No. 1 on the ‘New York Times’ best-seller list, I’m thinking of having the entire list tattooed on my body somewhere. It would be fabulous.
I’ve always viewed myself as a brand. When I started 10 years ago, that was very controversial. ‘Marketing’ and ‘PR’ were dirty words for the literary world, but that has changed. Once the book is finished, I want as many people as possible to read it.
The pace of Swedish crime fiction is slower – Stieg Larsson’s the exception. And I think we use the environment more.
Swedish taxes are high, and we don’t get as much as we used to for them. And our schools aren’t so good.
In Sweden, we’ve moved away from the notion that mothers have some magical, special bond with children.
I don’t feel the need to prove myself by writing the next generational novel.
I do listen to Abba. And a lot of ’80s and ’90s pop music.
Don’t ever get old. With each year that passes, the old Viking idea of jumping off a cliff to one’s death looks better and better. The only thing to hope for is that you get so senile that you think you’re twenty years old again. That would be fun to relive.
People in Sweden talk a lot about the weather – how much we hate it. But Finns get more depressed.
Scandinavian crime fiction has become a great success all across the world and rightfully so. Sjowall and Wahloo ushered in a whole generation of Swedish crime writers, many of whom are now available in English.
Erica’s despair has nothing to do with lack of motherly love. She loved Maja fiercely and sincerely. At the same time she felt as if she’d been invaded by an alien parasite that sucked all joy out of her and forced her into a shadow existence that had nothing in common with the life she’d lived before.