What does the Baltic Sea symbolize in the novel, This Must Be the Place?

The Baltic Sea, off the Stockholm Archipelago, is symbolic of ends and beginnings. It is the place where Claudette decides to stage the death of herself and her son to leave her old life behind and begin a new, peaceful, and quite life in Ireland. The disappearance occurs when Claudette and baby Ari board a rowboat from the Lindstrom family yacht, and row to shore. Many people believe Claudette and her son are dead and in the sea, while others believe she simply disappeared but did not die.