‘Me?’ she echoed in astonishment.
Her cousin nodded.
‘But I don’t know him.’
‘He says he comes from Sweden and works for the police. But he’s on leave at the moment. He says he investigated your fiancé’s death last spring.’
The words took Farah’s breath away and she looked at the older man’s grief-stricken face.
‘He says he’s afraid he can’t stay long because there’s someone else he has to see before he goes home. Another woman who lost her husband last spring. His name was Ali.’
Just then, her cousin’s wife came out of the kitchen, curious to see who this guest in their house was.
The stranger gave her a cautious nod and said something to Farah’s cousin.
‘He congratulates you on the baby you’re expecting,’ the cousin said to his very pregnant wife. ‘One of his close colleagues had a baby a few months ago and he’s going to be a grandfather by Christmas himself.’
Farah gave a melancholy smile, still at a loss as to why this man had come to see her out of the blue.
Then he quietly put his hand in his pocket and took out a tiny object.
Her fiancé’s engagement ring.
Without even thanking him, she took the ring and looked at it until the memories that it evoked overwhelmed her and her tears began to flow. When she looked up at the man who said he was a Swedish police officer, she saw he was crying, too.
‘It was his wife’s suggestion that he should come here and give you the ring,’ the cousin explained in a mumble, troubled by the guest’s tears.
‘You must thank her and send my greetings,’ Farah said stiffly.
She could almost have sworn that the stranger was smiling through his tears.
AUTHOR’S ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Daring to say thank you is important. At least it is for me. In thanking someone you are acknowledging that they had a hand in your work. That you did not do it all by yourself. And should – in fact – not try to do it all by yourself.
Writing a book is really like baking a very complicated kind of cake. As you struggle with the mixture and the meringue and the icing, you need extra pairs of hands. And you need time and energy, motivation and patience.
I find it easy to write. The words come of their own accord; there’s no need to force or coax them out. But sadly that is no guarantee that they will be perfect. I see it the minute I print the text out from the computer; I can tell where the story isn’t holding together. And I wrestle with all those letters and words, trying to force them to lie in the right way. Sometimes it works. But sometimes it doesn’t work at all.
First of all, a warm thank-you to everyone at my Swedish publishing house, the fantastic Piratförlaget! Sofi, Jenny, Cherie, Madeleine, Ann-Marie, Lasse, Mattias, Lottis, Anna Carin and Jonna – where would I be without your energy and constant encouragement? Particular thanks to my publisher Sofia, who carries on constructing a framework to keep the way ahead open, and makes me believe I can write any number of books. And to my editor Anna who always, always (and that repetition was deliberate, Anna) has the stamina to go on even when I don’t, and is the raising agent in the part of the cake mixture that’s called editing.
Many thanks, too, to everyone at the ultra-competent Salomonsson Agency – Niclas, Leyla, Tor, Catherine and Szilvia – which has secured enormous success abroad since the start of our collaboration in May 2009. I’m proud to be represented by you!
Thanks to all the friends and readers who are following my journey through the book world step by step, almost as if I were a rock star and not a writer. It’s wonderful the way you don’t just read my books but even get me to sign them when you’ve bought them as presents for other people.
Thanks to Malena and Mats, who provide me with time.
Thanks to Sven-Åke who continues to support me when my own knowledge of police work runs dry.
Thanks to the sales staff at Walter Borgs Jaktbutik who helped me select the perfect murder weapon.
Thanks to designer Nina Leino who makes my books look so incredibly smart.
Thanks to Sofia Ekholm who continues to occupy a special place in my writing. There’s soon going to be a new typescript to read through – I hope you have the time and the appetite!
And thanks to my family, who take such unconditional delight in my successes and travel the length and breadth of the country to be there when I’m talking about my book or kicking my heels behind the signing desk in some bookshop or other.
Thank you.
Kristina Ohlsson
Baghdad, spring 2010
KRISTINA OHLSSON
KRISTINA OHLSSON is a political scientist and until recently held the position of Counter-Terrorism officer at OSCE. She has previously worked at the Swedish Security Service, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Swedish National Defence, where she was a junior expert on the Middle East conflict and the foreign policy of the EU. Her debut novel, Unwanted, was published in Sweden in 2009 to terrific critical acclaim and won a Gold Pocket Award. Kristina lives in Stockholm.
SARAH DEATH has translated works by many writers including Kerstin Ekman, Astrid Lindgren, Sven Lindqvist, Steve Sem-Sandberg and Per Wahlöö. She has twice won the triennial George Bernard Shaw Prize for translation from Swedish, and was awarded the Swedish Academy’s Translation Prize in 2008. She is the editor of Swedish Book Review.
