The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Narrated by Simon Vance
Random House Audio
2008
Length: 16 hrs, 30 min
From the back of the audio case: A spellbinding amalgam of murder mystery, family saga, love story and financial intrigue.
It’s about the disappearance forty years ago of Harriet Vanger, a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden…and about her octogenarian uncle, determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder.
It’s about Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently at the wrong end of a libel case, hired to get to the bottom of Harriet’s disappearance…and about Lisbeth Salander, a pierced and tattooed genius hacker possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age, who assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, astonishing corruption in the highests echelons of Swedish industrialism, and an unexpected connection between themselves.
It’s about society at its most hidden, and about the intimate lives of a brilliantly realized cast of characters, forced to face the darker aspects of their world and of their own lives.
My thoughts: I read this book a few years ago for book club and you can see my review here. I decided to listen to the book now because I was getting ready to read books 2 and 3 and wanted to refresh my memory as to what had occurred. Listening to the story was great and has helped me with the pronunciation of some of the places/names in the next books.
Audio thoughts: One of the reasons I decided to listen to the audio of this is because I heard so many good things about Simon Vance as a narrator. Well, I definitely wasn’t disappointed. I’m not really familiar with Sweden or the Swedish language, but I have to say Simon Vance did a great job with all the Swedish words in the book. He gave Mikael Blomkvist an original voice and I still hear him in my head as I continued reading the next 2 books in the series. I’m glad I gave the audio a chance – it was great and despite the length, it moved along quite quickly.
(I borrowed this audio book from the library.)
Books in this series:
- The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
- The Girl Who Played With Fire
- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
I read the first in this series as a physical book. It was challenging at times to understand the pronunciation of the words or what was going on. The next two I got as an audiobook and am SO glad I did! I loved the series, but don't think I could've gotten through it if it wasn't an audiobook! 🙂
I had read the first one as a physical book a while ago and only listened to it this time around to refresh my memory. I ended up reading the physical books of the next two and it was ok – especially after hearing some of the pronunciations on this audio.
I just watched the movie with Daniel Craig – I have the book on my eReader but haven't had a chance to read it yet. I thought it was a pretty good movie and I bet it's an even better book.
I watched the movie, too and am really hoping they make books 2 and 3 into movies with Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara! The movie is a little different than the movie at times and of course, I think the book is better!
I loved this book! The entire series was amazing. It was edge of your seat reading. I started looking for similar books when I finished the series and found That Girl Started Her Own Country by Holy Ghost Writer. Have you read it? If not, you should check it out. I found it to be a comparable read especially in the suspense area and having a strong female lead (which I personally love!).