Welcome to my blog where I share my book reviews
and life along the winding road

Saturday, September 16, 2017

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Let me start off by saying I loved A Man Called Ove and thank goodness Fredrik Backman ignored the many rejections he received and continued trying to publish his book. It has now sold nearly 3 million copies worldwide. A good lesson for writers - don't take rejections seriously.

Fredrik Backman takes the reader through an emotional roller coaster with many laugh out loud moments and a few tears. I couldn't quite figure out the setting as it's written in English not American English, but when Ove talked about Kroner, I looked up the writer's bio and realized it was set in Sweden.

This was a book club choice and I'm so glad someone picked it for us to read.

From the cover:
At first sight, Ove is almost certainly the grumpiest man you will ever meet, a curmudgeon with staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. He thinks himself surrounded by idiots . . . People think him bitter. But must a man be bitter just because he doesn't walk around with a smile plastered on his face all the time, doesn't always tell people what they want to hear, and remains silent when he has nothing in particular to say?

“You will laugh, you will cry, as his heartbreaking story unfolds through the diverse cast of characters that enter his life, all uninvited. You will never look at the grumpy people who come into your life in quite the same way. A very memorable read.”
The San Diego Union-Tribune, Best Books of 2015