At his daughter’s insistence Erlendur finally went to the doctor. The doctor said the pain in his chest was caused by a bruised costal cartilage which was probably the fault of sleeping on a bad mattress and a general lack of exercise.

One day, over a piping bowl of meat stew, Erlendur asked Eva Lind whether he could choose the name if she gave birth to a girl. She said she’d expected him to make some suggestions.

“What do you want to call her?” she asked.

Erlendur looked at her.

“Audur,” he said. “I thought it would be nice to call her Audur.”