The Darkest Room

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

There are many beautiful lighthouses along the coasts of Öland, and there are also cult sites where animals and people were once sacrificed. But Eel Point and its surroundings are freely invented, as are all the characters in this novel.

A book about Öland that has been particularly important to me during the writing of the novel is Fåk-öländsk ovädersbok (Blizzard-A Book of Bad Weather on Öland) by Kurt Lundgren.

Thank you to Anita Tingskull, who showed me her beautiful home in Persnäs, and to Håkan Andersson, who showed me the fine royal estate in Borgholm. Thanks to Cherstin Juhlin, and to Kristina Österberg, who is the daughter of a lighthouse keeper. Thanks also to three “Stockholmers”: Mark Earthy (who found my maternal grandfather Ellert’s loading quay), Anette C. Andersson, and Anders Wennersten.

Thanks to the Gerlofsson family on Öland, above all my mother, Margot, and her cousins Gunilla, Hans, Olle, Bertil, Lasse, and their families.

Among those working on The Darkest Room, I would especially like to thank Lotta Aquilonius, Susanne Widén, Jenny Thor, and Christian Manfred.

Hugs to Helena and Klara; my father, Morgan; and my sister, Elisabeth, and her family.

Johan Theorin