The Circle (Hammer) - By Elfgren, Sara B.,Strandberg, Mats Page 0,169
the others.
But I’ll have to one day, she realises. Linnéa is right about that.
‘Do you hate me?’ Linnéa asks.
‘No,’ Minoo answers. ‘But you have to tell the others.’
Linnéa nods and sighs heavily.
‘I won’t say anything,’ Minoo says. ‘But you can’t wait too long.’
‘Neither can you,’ Linnéa says, and catches sight of something.
She gets up slowly. Minoo turns.
Vanessa is walking towards them in her tight pink dress. One of her heels gets stuck in the grass and she stumbles. They hear her swear.
Linnéa touches Minoo’s arm and points. Anna-Karin is lumbering along with her hands in her jacket pockets, her long hair swinging around her face.
Tears flare in Minoo’s eyes. She looks around the cemetery and, sure enough, Ida appears from the opposite direction. She’s pushing her bicycle between the gravestones.
Minoo becomes completely calm.
Everyone gathers around Elias and Rebecka’s graves. They look at each other but no one says a word. No one needs to explain why they’re here.
They are the Circle. They’ve fought together for their lives. And they’ll do it again.
Linnéa takes the bouquet of roses and divides it into two. One she lays on Elias’s grave. The other on Rebecka’s.
Minoo thinks about Rebecka’s and Elias’s souls. About how alive they felt in the moment she set them free.
‘Do you think they’re here now?’ Anna-Karin asks.
Minoo shakes her head. She can’t explain why, but suddenly she’s certain. ‘No,’ she answers. ‘They’re where they should be.’
She takes Linnéa’s hand and adds, ‘And so are we.’
Acknowledgements
Thanks to our wonderful publisher Marie Augustsson, who felt the magic right from the start and never doubted us – or at least did a good job of hiding it. Thanks also to our editor Sofia Hahr who brought in a fresh pair of eyes when we had stared ourselves blind. Cartwheeling pompom girls, balloons and cakes to Eva Ehrnström, Karin Rowland and the whole incredible team at Rabén & Sjögren/Norstedts, who have given our baby the best possible chances of making it out in the big wide world.
Thanks also to Lena, Maria, Lotta and Peter at Grand Agency. You have guided us and always made us feel chosen.
Thanks to Kim W. Andersson who managed to boil down our vague wishes into three cover illustrations that turned out more beautiful than we ever could have imagined.
Thanks to Pär Åhlander who managed to find a format that summed up everything we wanted to convey and didn’t give up until he had achieved perfection.
Thanks to Catharina Wrååk, who read the first chapter at a very early stage and gave us good advice that saved us a whole lot of extra work.
Thanks to Tommy and Stefan Runarsson who taught us what Anna-Karin’s life was like on the farm, and Anna Bonnier who helped us fill in the gaps in Linnéa’s background. Thanks also to Maria Sadeghzadeh and her family, Elisabeth Östnäs and Camille Tuutti.
Mats would like to thank Margareta, who let us hold our sect-like writing camp for two in her beautiful house, and for producing such a splendid daughter of course. Sara would like to thank her mother – for always reading, supporting, challenging and being there to discuss books, writing and life in general. Thanks for all the stories!
Sara would also like to thank Margit and Micko Strandberg – for their warm reception during our research trip to Bergslagen and for producing such a gifted and handsome son, of course. Mats would like to express his gratitude to his parents – for always being allowed to come home, lock myself up in my old room and only show my face downstairs in time for dinner. I love you more than anyone in the world.
Mats would like to thank Micke – when two people work together things can get pretty crazy on occasion, so thanks for letting me mentally kidnap your wife the whole time. Your patience with my existence is boundless … ‘right?’ Sara wishes she could write a ten-page thank you to Micke for his total support, enthusiasm, humour, patience, friendship and love. Sometimes words really aren’t enough.
Sara would also like to thank her sister Sofia – for your enthusiasm, good advice and Frasse. And thanks to her dad Claes for good comments, and LucasArts games for teaching her proper keyboard technique.
A big thank you to those of you who have read the manuscript in various stages and provided valuable input and encouragement. A few of you are: Elin Borowski, Elisabeth Jensen Haverling, Siska Humlesjö, Viktoria Aponte Persson, Mathilda Elfgren Schwartz, Johanna Paues Darlington, Rickard Darlington, Minna Frydén Bonnier, Anton Bonnier, Hans-Jörgen Riis Jensen, Anna Andersson, Emelie Thorén, Johan Ehn, Lina Neidestam, Pär Åhlander and Levan Akin.
Thanks to all our friends and colleagues for their support and for putting up with our disappearing off to Engelsfors – and with the fact that once we finally did return to reality for a visit, that we did so in the form of a strange creature with two heads.
And a special honorary thank you to the literary Typhoid Mary, alias Helena Dahlgren, who brought us together because she sensed that we would like each other. Little did you know how right you were – and what a monster you created.
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
Version 1.0
Epub ISBN 9781446474853
Published by Arrow Books in association with Hammer 2012
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Copyright © Sara B. Elfgren and Mats Strandberg, 2011
This English translation copyright © Per Carlsson, 2011
The authors have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
This book is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Published in Great Britain in 2011 by Arrow Books in association with Hammer
The Random House Group Limited
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Addresses for companies within The Random House Group Limited can be found at: www.randomhouse.co.uk/offices.htm
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 9780099568537
Table of Contents
About the Book
About the Authors
Title Page
Dedication
Part I
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Part II
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Part III
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Part IV
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Part V
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Acknowledgements
Copyright
Table of Contents
About the Book
About the Authors
Title Page
Dedication
Part I
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Part II
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Part III
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Part IV
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Part V
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Acknowledgements
Copyright