Who is Lisbeth Salander from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and what is their importance?

Lisbeth Salander is a 24-year-old woman living in Stockholm, and arguably one of the most complex characters in modern literature. Her physical appearance — solemn, Goth-like, and covered with tattoos and piercings — belies her extraordinary skills as an investigator and computer hacker. Salander has had a very difficult childhood, although the reader never learns the true extent of the abuse she suffered, and has been placed under the court-ordered guardianship of a sadistic attorney who eventually rapes her. Salander always gets revenge though, and she discards her initial temptation to kill her tormentor and instead devises a clever plan that punishes him while also establishing a path that will release her from guardianship.