“I didn’t know that.”
“It’s funny. Martin has turned out to be a really fine person. If you had asked me
thirty-five years ago, I would have said that he was the one in the family who
needed psychiatric care.”
“Why so?”
“Harriet wasn’t the only one who suffered ill effects from the situation. For many
years Martin was so quiet and introverted that he was effectively antisocial. Both
children had a rough time of it. I mean, we all did. I had my own problems with my
father—I assume you realise that he’s stark raving mad. My sister, Anita, had the
same problem, as did Alexander, my cousin. It was tough being young in the
Vanger family.”
“What happened to your sister?”
“She lives in London. She went there in the seventies to work in a Swedish travel
agency, and she stayed. She married someone, never even introduced him to the
family, and anon they separated. Today she’s a senior manager of British Airways.
She and I get along fine, but we are not much in contact and only see each other
every other year or so. She never comes to Hedestad.”
“Why not?”
“An insane father. Isn’t that explanation enough?”
“But you stayed.”
“I did. Along with Birger, my brother.”
“The politician.”
“Are you making fun of me? Birger is older than Anita and me. We’ve never been
very close. In his own eyes he’s a fantastically important politician with a future in
Parliament and maybe ministerial rank, if the conservatives should win. In point of
fact he’s a moderately talented local councillor in a remote corner of Sweden,
which will probably be both the high point and the whole extent of his career.”
“One thing that tickles me about the Vanger family is that you all have such low
opinions of each other.”