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similar.
    They continued on toward the sports field as they chatted about all sorts of things, mostly about the baby and what name they were going to give her. Johan wanted her to be called Natalie, while Emma preferred Elin.
    “But she looks like a Natalie,” said Johan. “With her dark hair and brown eyes. Slightly exotic. She’s going to be a real beauty—with us as her parents,” he added and grinned. “Just picture a cute girl with long dark hair named Natalie.”
    Emma couldn’t help smiling. “Maybe right now, yes. At the moment she has dark hair and eyes, but she could just as well end up blond and blue-eyed. Maybe then the name wouldn’t suit her as well.”
    “Oh, what does that matter? It’s a beautiful name.”
    “Sure, but I’m allergic to the idea of giving Swedish children names that try to be as international as possible. Names like Nicole, Angelique, or Yvette. We live in Sweden, not France.”
    “Don’t you think you’re being a little narrow-minded? Did you know that one in five Swedes has foreign heritage? Sweden is no fair-skinned paradise anymore, with rye bread dancing the Hambo. It’s multicultural. Even though I admit that the development seems to be happening slower over here on Gotland,” he teased, giving her a little poke in the side.
    “I still think that Elin is nicer,” insisted Emma.
    Johan stopped again and took her face between the palms of his hands.
    “If you feel so strongly about it, then Elin it is—as long as you’re happy.”
    “But I want you to like it, too.”
    “I do, I assure you I do. I’m so happy to have a daughter named Elin with you, believe me.”

WEDNESDAY, JULY 7
    KALLE ÖSTLUND’S PARENTS had bought the summer house near Björkhaga, just north of Klintehamn, in the fifties. Their family was one of the first to move into the small summer-house area. Most of the residents were islanders—some who had moved to the mainland but wanted to keep their summer house, and others who lived in Visby and felt it was the right location for a country place, about twenty miles away. It was a peaceful area for most of the year. During the summer it got livelier when tourists headed out there to walk along the Vivesholm promontory and admire the countless birds that frequented the shoreline. It was also a popular place for watching sunsets, when the whole sky would be colored crimson, with a view of the open sea in both directions. Kalle thought it was splendid, too, even though he had seen the drama thousands of times from here. For him there was no lovelier place on earth. He enjoyed fishing, and on this morning he was going out to pull up his net, which he hoped would be filled with flounder.
    He had set the alarm clock for 5:00 A.M. , and his wife, Birgitta , was sound asleep when he got up, but the dog was happy and wide-awake. Their Italian retriever, Lisa, was like a whirlwind. She loved to go everywhere with him, which she did. She scampered around his legs as he trudged off.
    He opened the big gate facing the promontory, where the dairy cows were grazing in the summer pasture. The sky was a bright blue, and the clouds were woolly and harmless, hovering above the boathouses over by Kovik on the other side of the shore. The dirt road that ran along the promontory was light in color, bearing witness to the fact that the soil was rich in lime. Out here the landscape was heathlike. The vegetation was low-lying and consisted mostly of juniper and short-stemmed flowers.
    At the moment the meadow along the shore shimmered with flowers of sea thrift, which looked like little pink balls.
    He had brought Lisa’s leash, just in case, but he let her run free on the path down to the boat. The birds’ breeding season was over, so she wouldn’t find any bird eggs. The promontory was the breeding ground for a large number of herons, cormorants, and various kinds of gulls.
    When they had reached the middle of the shoreline meadow facing the sea, Lisa caught sight of a rabbit and took off in the opposite direction. He glimpsed the little bunny bounding away for dear life with the dog barking wildly right on its heels. Kalle called several times, but the dog was much too engrossed in the chase to pay any attention. He shook his head and kept on going. She’d come back soon enough. He got the boat ready, now and then casting an eye over the promontory and calling the dog, but Lisa was nowhere in sight.
    Kalle decided to wait. He sat down on a rock and took