"There Are Things I Want You to Know" About Stieg Larsson and Me

Gabrielsson and Larsson met when they were 18 at an anti-Vietnam War meeting and they remained together for 32 years until his unexpected death in 2004.[1]

The memoir originated with a series of diary entries that Gabrielsson wrote in order to cope with the loss of her partner. It chronicles their life together and puts Larsson's life into context.[2] The title of the book comes from a love letter that Larsson wrote to Gabrielsson when he thought he might die during a trip to Africa in 1977. The letter is included in the memoir along with the details of Larsson's trip to Africa.[3]

Her partner, she says, was a feminist, a hopeless businessman, a journalist who could not hold down a staff job, and a passionate fighter and investigator for social causes and against the Far Right.[4] The memoir details how the couple met and their struggles together at Expo, the anti-fascist publication Larsson founded in 1995.[5] Larsson's crusade against Sweden's right wing fascist movements put him in constant danger and Gabrielsson writes that neo-Nazis left death threats on the couple's answering machine and sent bullets in the mail, and suggests that part of the reason the two of them never married was that it would have made Larsson an easier target for his opponents on the right.[6]

The memoir was written in Swedish and was first published by Actes Sud in 2011. It was translated into English by Linda Coverdale and published by Seven Stories Press also in 2011.