Okay, I just finished Steig Larsson’s The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest. I was pretty satisfied except for one thing — Camilla Salander, Lisbeth’s twin. What is up with her? Why is she mentioned here and there and then no more? With all the attention given to Lisbeth there was nothing done with Camilla? Why does no one seem to care? Not Blomkvist? His sister? The baddies? The goodies? Let me edit that — why does no one appear to care? Is she a clumsy red herring? I have a hard time believing that. But on the other, she is barely a blip in three books. What the –?
I can only surmise that Larsson had intended something with her in the future. Readers of these books — what do you think?
educating alice 
I agree it was weird — I kept expecting her to show up at the trial. I heard he had 10 books planned, so she must have been in the plans. I worry that she’s just another awful, terrible part of Lizbeth’s life though. – Michelle Bayuk
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Is it possible that Lisbeth and Camilla are the same person? Split personality kind of thing?
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My thoughts exactly. Also… what is Lisbeth going to do with her life? And why did Susan get to know the things Lisbeth can do. Probably also something that would have been picked up in a later book.
I searched and it turned out Larsson intended to write 10 books. He already started with part 4 and wrote a synopsis of 5 and 6. Am supercurious what they are going to do with that. Anyone?
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Michelle, I too have to assume he had big plans for her in the future books.
Mieke, I gather all is up in the air because his girlfriend has all of it and doesn’t want to publish.
My guess is eventually they will work something out and have a different writer pick up the story. Don’t you think?
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The only one who can answer the question: Where is Camilla is perhaps Stiegs women Eva Gabrielsson, who read the books (reshaerch?) and was discusionspartner.
Eva knows what stands in the 4 manus and what Stieg had planed for the rest of the books. -Perhaps could she write the 4book. But Will she got any money for that?
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I’m sure Stieg had plans for Camilla.
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I, too, am terribly curious about Camilla, and suspect Larsson had plans for her in the next book. On the other hand, I am so grateful that the third book was completed . . . can you imagine being left hanging after the second book?? Now, that would have been awful.
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i realise this is a long shot, but i got the feeling reading the books that Mia Johannson was going to be revealed as the adopted sister Camilla, since she had been writing a thesis about the mistreatment of women, i thought the two were going to be connected somehow.
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Julie, not possible, as Camilla is a twin. I think it was even mentioned that they were identical, but different from each other- from the childhood incident where they fought in a classroom.
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Too bad the Larsson died. I would have liked to see what kind of character Camilla is.
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I had a feeling that one of the women (the skinnier one) locked up in the warehouse and killed by Niedermann was going to turn out to have been Camilla. And that we would have found out that the father had been raping her for years and keeping her there, or something horrible like that…. especially since in one of the books Lisbeth reflects on how much Camilla looked like their mother… but I dunno… I definitely got the sense that there had to be a fourth book–both the unfinished emotional devolopment of Lisbeth, her listlessness, and the missing Camilla factor….
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lol i kno this post is a bit old but its been released that the new stieg larsson book the book he didnt finish before he died was going to have more of camilla in it
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Thanks so much for letting me know. Found this link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/aug/22/stieg-larsson-final-novel
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Pingback: Camilla Salander Redux « educating alice
I was going to leave a link here to my piece about Kurdo Baksi at the Edinburgh Book Festival (http://bookwitch.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/he-knew-stieg/), although I notice I didn’t actually mention Camilla.
Kurdo (Stieg’s friend) mentioned her, as there were audience questions about her and he had definite answers regarding Lisbeth’s sister. (As the Guardian piece mentions.) Whether it’s the truth is another matter, according to one of my sources.
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Ann,
Thanks! The commenter before you also mentioned something and I found a link to a Guardian article where something was said about Kurdo’s comments. And, yes, others have a different take on it. It just occurred to me there is probably a lot of fan fiction out there about Camilla!
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Larsson intended to write 10 books. Maybe a ghostwriter will finish the 4th book, which he left incomplete due to his untimely death. But since he was not married to his partner, who currently possesses the manuscript, the literary rights of it have gone to his family.
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I read that on Lisbeth’s 18 birthday, Camilla and Lisbeth get into a very big fight. They never seen each other since and don’t know about each others whereabouts.
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I also wondered about Camilla and the other brothers and sitsters. i’m sure the other books were going to be about all of them. In an interview on the today show, stieg’s partner said she is fighting for the rights of the book with his family. They want to rip her off and take most of the profits. She’s holding the 4th book until they can come to a resolution. Weren’t they together for like 20 years? She deserves some of that. She said there are no common law spousal rights in Sweden. She’s fighting in American courts. She said they’ve only offered her about $50k from the millions, which is crazy. Unfortunately for us, the readers, the next book and notes are her only bargaining chip.
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I prey that at least the fourth book gets released, I think everyone wants to know more about Camilla because she’s a different persona of salander I read that Camilla repressed everything that happened to them in their childhood which happens quite often in traumatic events but it would be nice to see the sisters reconcile somehow.
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I am positive that Camilla is the “she” referred to as the reporter for TV4. She is also the only woman not effected by Blomkvist’s charms.
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I’m very sure she’s not. The way she’s referred to in Swedish does not work with your theory.
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me intriga mucho el saber que sucedio con Camilla, es una persona completamente diferente a Lisbeth, ella queria a su padre y reprimia todo… espero pronto puedan dar respuestas a nuestras preguntas …
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The books also state that camilla and lisbeth had gave completely different accounts of what happened on the day “all the evil happened” and that camilla didn’t back up lisbeths version of events. I suspect camilla was running zalachenkos empire elsewhere in Europe and the next books would involve an all out war between sisters. With kalle blomquist sleeping with them both.
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Best theory yet.
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Ok ….. what if Camilla is Lisbeth’s other self? ….. How easy it would be for L to have a split personality ….. Fun to think of possible concepts. So sad that he author was unable to write all his books ….
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Thankfully the Girl in the Spider’s Web is out. :::wink wink:::
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As Alex mentioned, Girl in the Spider’s web sheds some more light on Camilla and the “entanglement” with Lisbeth. After reading this book, there will definitely be even more to come of the Salander Sisters’ mystery….bwahahaha! While I miss Steig Larrson’s writing, David Lagercrantz did a good job keeping his legacy alive.
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