Echoes From the Dead

Acknowledgments

Echoes from the Dead is set mainly at some point in the mid-1990s on the beautiful island of Öland — but an Öland which to some extent exists only in the author’s imagination. Neither the characters nor the businesses in the story are based on real-life individuals or companies, and many places are also invented.

For all the stories and memories they shared with me from their eventful lives, I am grateful to my grandfather, sea captain Ellert Gerlofsson, and his brother, the hairdresser and diver Egon Gerlofsson. For historical facts I would like to thank Stellan Johansson, a sea captain in Bohuslän; Kristian Wedel, a journalist in Gothenburg; and Lars Oscarsson, an attorney in Jönköping.

Many friends have helped me in a variety of ways while I have been writing Echoes from the Dead: thanks to Kajsa Asklöf, Monica Bengtsson, Victoria Hammar, and Peter Nilsson in the writers’ group Litter; Jacob Beck-Friis, Niclas Ekström, Rikard Hedlund, Caroline Karlsson, Mats Larsson, Carlos Olguin, Catarina Oscarsson, Michael Sevholt, Kalle Ulvstig, and Anders Weidemann; as well as to my relatives Lasse and Eva Björk in Kalmar, Hans and Birgitta Gerlofsson in Färjestaden, and Gunilla and Per-Olof Rylander in Borgholm.

I would also like to thank all my excellent, hardworking editors, above all Rickard Berghorn of the journal Minotaur and Kent Björnsson of the publishing firm Schakt, who have taken good care of many of my short stories, as well as Lotta Aquilonius at Wahlström & Widstrand, who took equally good care of Echoes from the Dead.

My mother, Margot Theorin, deserves a considerable eulogy for all the old and new books and newspaper articles about life on Öland with which she has so generously supplied me.

And finally, thank you and a big hug to Helena and Klara for putting up with my daydreaming.

Johan Theorin