John Ajvide Lindqvist


John Ajvide Lindqvist is a Swedish writer of horror novels and short stories.

Early life

Lindqvist was born and raised in the Stockholm suburb of Blackeberg. As a teenager, he used to perform street magic for the tourists walking on Västerlånggatan in Stockholm. Before becoming a published writer, Lindqvist worked for 12 years as a stand-up comedian, and also worked for a time as a magician.

Career

Lindqvist's debut novel Let the Right One In, a romantic vampire horror story published in 2004, enjoyed great success in Sweden and abroad. Handling the Undead was published in 2005 and involved the rising of the dead as zombies, referred to as the "re-living", in the Stockholm area.
In 2006, he released his third book Pappersväggar, a collection of short stories. In 2007, his story "Tindalos" was published as a serial in the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, and as a free audiobook available through the newspaper's website, read by the author himself. His works are published in Sweden by Ordfront and have been translated into many languages, including English, Bulgarian, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Hindi, Norwegian, Danish, French, Polish, Czech, Dutch and Russian.
Lindqvist was also a writer for the television series , and wrote the screenplays for Sveriges Television's drama series Kommissionen and for the film Let the Right One In, based on his novel.
The production company Tre Vänner bought the film rights to Handling the Undead and were planning a future production. However, heavy interest in an American version led to the request to sell the rights to an American company. Lindqvist refused and the film went unmade. Tre Vänner's rights for an adaptation expired in 2012.

Inspirations

Lindqvist is a Morrissey fan. The name of his debut novel was inspired by the Morrissey song "Let the Right One Slip In" and one of the short stories in Pappersväggar was named after the song "Shoplifters of the World Unite". The influence of Morrissey's music became involved in the actual plot of Harbour, where two of the main characters are devoted Morrissey fans who live out much of their lives by speaking in quotes from Morrissey's songs.
Lindqvist's father drowned, and the sea has appeared in several of his works as a dark and sinister force, such as in Handling the Undead and a short story in Pappersväggar. In Harbour the sea has a prominent role as a menacing presence and could be considered the villain of the novel. Furthermore, Let the Right One In features a pivotal near-drowning scene in a gym swimming pool.

Dramatic works