The offer comes in an exclusive interview with the Swedish daily paper Svenska Dagbladet.

Stieg Larsson died of a heart attack in November 2004 at the age of 50. At that time he was known only locally for his campaigning work against extreme right-wing movements in Sweden. However, he left behind three novels which have posthumously propelled him to international stardom: The Millennium Trilogy, featuring the savvy 20-year old Lisbet Salander, and the journalist Mikael Blomkvist. The three novels The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest have been huge successes not only in Sweden but also in Germany, France, USA and many other countries earning his estate large, but undisclosed sums. More than 20 million copies of the trilogy have been sold in Europe alone.

Stieg Larsson lived for 32 years with the architect Eva Gabrielsson. They never married, had no children and he did not leave a will. According to Swedish law Stieg Larsson’s estate was therefore inherited by his father and brother which sparked an acrimonious dispute between them and Eva Gabrielsson who claimed that the father Erland Larsson and brother Joakim Larsson ”were never a part of our lives” and that they are unsuited to handling his estate.

”If Stieg had been alive, and had seen this, it would have totally enraged him”, Eva Gabrielsson said in 2007. ”This is about making money out of someone who cannot defend himself.”

There has been no direct contact between the parties in the five years since the author’s death.

”We have always been willing to speak to Eva”, says Erland Larsson. ”But she has refused to talk to us during all these years. We cannot wait any longer. We must move on. That is why we offer this settlement”, he explains in the interview with Svenska Dagbladet.

Texten översatt från svenska till engelska av Lars Ryding