Author Stieg Larssons companion speaks of 4th work

Gabrielsson,who lived with Larsson,earlier said she had laptop with a manuscript of his unpublished 4th novel

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Eva Gabrielsson,who found herself pursued by fame and controversy as the longtime companion of Stieg Larsson,the posthumously best-selling author of the Millennium trilogy of Swedish crime thrillers,has published a book of her own.

In Linda Coverdales English translation,the book has the direct,plainspoken title There Are Things I Want You to Know About Stieg Larsson and Me. (The quote is a reference to a letter that Larsson wrote to Gabrielsson in the 1970s.)

Larsson,a Swedish writer and journalist,died unexpectedly in November 2004,when he was just 50,and had no idea how successful his books The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest would become. He and Gabrielssson had lived together for 32 years but never wed,and because they were childless,and because Swedish law makes no provision for common law marriage,she had no legal right to his estate,worth tens of millions of dollars.

Everything went to his father and brother,who have have been locked for years now in an acrimonious battle of wills with her. Gabrielssons book does not throw much new light on her bitter stalemate with Larssons father and brother,during which they have tried to obtain from her a crucial remaining piece of the estate: Larssons laptop,with the unfinished novel saved on the harddrive. There were two meetings last spring,she said,and then,in June,the Larssons broke off negotiations.

In New York on Monday,Gabrielsson talked forthrightly about the oddest passage in her book,a description of an elaborate Viking curse she delivered on New Years Eve 2004 against all her and Larssons enemies: the false friends,the cowards who let Stieg fight your battles while you raked in the salaries of your cushy jobs, the evil ones who plotted,spied,and stirred up prejudice. Traditionally such curses were accompanied by the sacrifice of a live horse,but instead Gabrielsson broke a ceramic horse in two and tossed it into Lake Malaren. Nevertheless,it worked,she said. I felt immense relief, she said.

Gabrielsson said she has not read the fourth novel,and was evasive about the whereabouts of the computer. She has estimated that the manuscript consists of roughly 200 pages,based on how much Larsson had finished at the end of their vacation in August 2004,and from their conversations she knows what its about. But all she would say is that its set in Canada,and that once again it features Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomqkvist. Oh yes,theyre still there, she said.CHARLES MCGRATH