"Feminism Retreats and the Far Right Advances"

Karin Smirnoff (Umea, 1964) signed a contract to write three novels for the 'Millennium' series, the sensation that exploded in 2005. Its ill-fated creator, Stieg Larsson, could not enjoy its success, but the publishing machine is unwilling to stop exploiting a goldmine with over a hundred million books sold and several films. Smirnoff's 'The Lynx's Fangs' (Destino), the eighth title in the series, denounces the rollback of feminist achievements, the rise of the far-right that Larsson had already warned about, and the 'green cynicism' and machinations of multinationals to whitewash ecological abuses that ravage Northern Sweden, where both she and Larsson were born.

Violence against women is a recurring theme in the series that Smirnoff has already tackled in 'The Eagle's Claws' (2023). She detects "a clear regression" in this area, mentioning the phenomenon of 'trad wives', traditional women who advocate for the submissive housewife role on social media. "Some politicians aim to return women to the domestic sphere and bury the rights achieved with much sacrifice by so many previous generations in a wave of attacks against feminist gains," Smirnoff warns.

"The winds are clearly blowing in favour of the far-right today. The warnings Larsson issued in 2005 are now a reality," the author laments. On a promotional visit to Spain, she confesses to being "worried" about the normalisation of the "nonsense" from far-right parties and their members in Sweden. She does not hide that the "unstoppable" far-right advance frightens her "a great deal". "As much as it did Larsson, who already warned that the far-right party Sweden Democrats would come to power," Smirnoff recalls.

"I have many photos of skinheads from that party doing the Nazi salute in their bomber jackets," states Smirnoff, who worked as a photographer and journalist in the 1990s, like Larsson. "Today they have 20% of the votes and are an established party. They deny being neo-Nazis and any connection to that ultra ideology, but it is clear they are," she asserts. "They share their views on immigration, which we face in Europe and everywhere in the world, with those of Trump's United States," she adds.

Smirnoff gives "another twist" to the conflict between economic development and its ecological implications by exposing the severe consequences of mining operations in Sweden in search of valuable rare earths. "Multinationals take advantage of legislation that favours investments in short-lived mining projects. They exploit resources for 10 or 15 years and then abandon them. Their only interest is money; they do not care about the living conditions of the environment, ecological development, and the effects on the inhabitants of the area, such as the Sami," she says. She criticises "the tremendous ignorance" of politicians who are "easy prey for mining lobbies" and who facilitate companies' 'greenwashing', the ecological whitewashing.

Smirnoff will publish another title in the series – she is already working on it – and then draw a line under it. "I don't know how long the series will last, but I will not extend my contract for three novels," she specifies. Larsson's heirs called on her to continue the series after the three novels written by David Lagercrantz. "Stieg's brother died recently, and I don't know what the family will do," insists Smirnoff, who moves the action from Stockholm to northern Sweden, the region she hails from, like Larsson, and addresses the "mobilising topics, of tremendous current relevance and sad evolution," that the writer tackled. But Smirnoff "softens and humanises" Lisbeth Salander, her dark 'hacker', so "she transitions from being a heroine to an anti-heroine".

Smirnoff ran a successful family timber business. A former journalist and mother with empty nest syndrome after raising three children, she turned to literature at 50. In 2018, she published 'My Brother'. After a string of successes with suspense narratives, she accepted the proposal from Larsson's heirs to continue the 'Millennium' series.