Fredrik Backman, brother in all but blood, two years ago you made me aware of the possibility of writing a continuation of the book that would not have been written without you, and it helped me to realize that it was also what I most of all wanted to do. You have been with me each step of the way, reading, commenting, and analyzing, and at each stage you said the words that I most of all needed to hear. I am deeply in your debt, as always. Thank you for everything.
Adam Dahlin, my publisher, and Andreas Lundberg, my editor, you have with diligence and conviction pointed out all of the problems that appear when ideas are to be harnessed by words, and without your assistance the shortcomings of this book would have been far greater than they are.
Stina Jackson and Sofia Lundberg, honored fellow writers, I am deeply grateful to you both for the fact that you have lent me your talents in offering your opinions of my manuscript. Your respective insights opened perspectives that I had earlier overlooked and gave me the opportunity to improve my text. Thank you, Stina. Thank you, Sofia.
Federico Ambrosini, my agent, thank you for all of your tireless efforts on my behalf, and for your friendship. Marie Gyllenhammar, thank you for all of your hard work and support.
Martin Ödman, I appreciate that you have once again taken the trouble to read and critique, and provide your clear-eyed commentary. Thank you also for lending parts of your je ne sais quoi to Jean Michael Cardell.
Anna Nordenfelt Hellberg and Tobias Hellberg, thank you for reading and providing commentary.
Thank you to my father for such critical acumen, and the same to my mother with particular thanks for careful copyediting.
Many thanks to my wife, Mia, and to my children for all of their love and patience.
Of all of the source material that has been used for writing this book, I want to particularly acknowledge Kirsi Vainio-Korhonen’s De frimodiga (The Courageous), translated from the Finnish by Camilla Frostell, which describes in scrupulous detail the reality for midwives who were trained in Stockholm in the eighteenth century and the conditions for the mothers-to-be that they assisted.