magnus was seen in his native sweden as an investigative journalist and a fervent campaigner against corruption . but when he died of a heart attack at young 50 in 2004 , he left off the manuscripts of three books that might transform his name . his first novel , the girl with the dragon tattoo , was serialized in sweden a year after his demise and was already an worldwide success as it was released in the united states last january by alfred a knopf . more than 6 million copies of the book have been sold worldwide . an international study based on best - sale lists in the individual states , spain , france , germany , sweden , italy , spain and china ranked larsson the second most popular book publisher in 2008 after khaled kharazi , author of the rope runner and a thousand splendid suns .
" the kite ride " was written by khaled hosseini .