This is a story about a bank robbery. This is a story about a hostage situation. This is a story about being a parent. This is a story about love and life. All of these are true because this is a story by Fredrik Backman. To quote the author, this is a story about idiots. This is also a story that is beautiful. There, that sums it up.
A character in the novel is a parent going through a divorce and never saw it coming. To make things easier on the couple's children (and because this parent's own childhood was full of the chaos of a drug addicted mother) this parent decides not to cause any chaos for the children, so simply accepts being tossed out of the family home (even though the other parent was cheating with the bank robber's boss and that boss fires the bank robber)! A lawyer advises that the 6500 kronos owed on the divorced parent's apartment be paid or the children will be taken away. That is why that character becomes a bank robber - and then a hostage taker - after running across the street from the bank and upstairs into an apartment viewing.
Eventually the hostages are freed but the bank robber is not with them. Also, right after they're released the police hear a gunshot coming from the apartment. When they rush in, there is blood on the floor, but the gunman is nowhere to be seen. A police interview with each hostage ensues.
We learn of some of these people as they're being interviewed by two policemen, a father/son duo. The younger officer was inspired to become a policeman when as a teen he tries to talk a man off a bridge, but the man jumps anyway. Julia and Ro are a couple looking at apartments because they're expecting their first child. Anna-Lena and Roger are an older couple who flip apartments. Zara is a banker who has a connection with the man who jumped off the bridge ten years earlier. And Estelle is an elderly lady coming into the apartment viewing while her husband parks the car. Other people at the apartment viewing are introduced as more to the plot is revealed.
Backman has a way of painting a picture such as when we learn that grumpy old Roger watches documentaries late into the evening not because he particularly likes them but because he doesn't want to wake up Anna-Lena and have her move her head from his shoulder. And Estelle ponders that when she met her husband Knut, it wasn't a love story like she had read it could feel but more like a story of a child finding the perfect playmate.
I loved Backman's A Man Called Ove but might love this one more. Quirky and moving, full of surprises and charm, this book is a top recommendation.
I loved Backman's A Man Called Ove, but I might like this one better. Quirky and funny, this book and
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