'The Girl Who Played with Fire' sets Shanghai ablaze

After conquering Western countries' best seller lists, the Swedish crime novel “The Girl Who Played with Fire” sets its eyes on mainland China. The book’s simplified Chinese edition was released at the end of August at the Swedish Pavilion on the 2010 Expo site, and is on sale in Shanghai now.

Imported by 99 Dushuren, the owner of one of China’s biggest online book retailers 99read, and published by The People’s Literature Publishing House, “The Girl Who Played with Fire” is priced at RMB 39.90 and will be available on 99read and in book stores all over Shanghai.

Look for this cover in Chinese bookstores for the new translation of Stieg Larsson's "The Girl Who Played with Fire".

Contemporary Swedish literature

As the second installment of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy, which made the author one of the best-selling Swedish writers ever, this book was translated into English in 2009 and became the first and only translated novel to be number one in the U.K. hardback chart.

“We heard this crime novel gained a big success in Europe in 2007 and was praised by publishers and authors around the world,” says Wu Wenjuan, the book’s strategy editor. “Our copyright manager and editor also fell in love with it after they read it, and they sensed it’d be a huge success in China as well. [Our company] then decided to purchase the copyright for simplified Chinese immediately.”

Its prequel, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," has already been published in China in April 2010 also by The People’s Literature Publishing House and 99 Dushuren, and the third installment, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest," is scheduled to hit the Chinese market next January.

Violence and piracy

Following its heroine Lisbeth Salander, “The Girl Who Played with Fire” follows the rhythm of the first book in the series highlighting issues of sexual violence against women.

When asked about the possible reaction of Chinese readers towards the gender-based violence, Jonna Wibelius, the head of Culture & Public Affairs in Consulate General of Sweden, tells us she is not worried about what people will think about the violence in the book. 

“The beauty of literature is that everyone’s entitled to form their own view and opinion about what they read. The first translated book from the trilogy, 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,' has been read by a lot of my Chinese friends. They all found the book very interesting,” she says. “I think as a reader, it is easy to recognize your own anger and frustration about everyday injustices, corruptions and political systems in the book.”

Wu agrees with Wibelius. “Although [the violence in the book] is striking, it’s a necessary element to push forward the story. It’s not outrageous in the definition of crime novels.”

Wu thinks that Chinese crime novel fans would have no problem dealing with the degree of violence that "The Girl Who Played with Fire" brings up.

When asked about China’s pirate book issue, Wu explains that they invested heavily in anti-piracy measures for the book.

“Although it seems inevitable for best-selling books to be pirated in China, we’re trying our best to protect this book,” says Wu. “We haven’t found any pirate copies of 'The Girls with the Dragon Tattoo' yet.”

However, Wu chose not to go into detail about exactly which anti-piracy measures his company is using for the new release.

A page about the traditional Chinese edition of “The Girl Who Played with Fire” has been set up on Douban, one of China’s biggest social networking websites. The review meter shows 43.7 percent of the readers gave "The Girl Who Played with Fire" five stars out of five stars and 41.4 percent ranked it four stars.