Book Club Author Suggestion: Fredrik Backman

Brief Bio:

Fredrik Backman is a Swedish author and blogger known for his heartwarming and insightful novels that explore complex emotions and relationships. Born on June 2, 1981, in Stockholm, Sweden, Backman initially worked as a columnist and blogger before achieving international fame with his 2012 debut novel, A Man Called Ove. The novel quickly became a bestseller and was adapted into a successful film, establishing Backman as a prominent voice in contemporary literature.

Backman has since written several bestselling novels, including My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, Britt-Marie Was Here, Beartown, and Anxious People. His books are celebrated for their unique characters, often outcasts or individuals grappling with personal challenges, and for the ways they emphasize empathy, kindness, and community. With a mix of humor and poignancy, Backman’s works resonate deeply with readers worldwide.

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Available Works in the Colorado Book Club Resource

The Book Club Resource has 8+ copies of each title available for 8 weeks at a time to reading groups across the state. The descriptions below were taken from Amazon.com.

A Man Called Ove (2013) | Discussion Questions

Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon—the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him “the bitter neighbor from hell.” But must Ove be bitter just because he doesn’t walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?

Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents’ association to their very foundations.

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry (2015) | Discussion Questions

Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy—as in standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-strangers crazy. She is also Elsa’s best, and only, friend. At night Elsa takes refuge in her grandmother’s stories, in the Land-of-Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas, where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal.

When Elsa’s grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa’s greatest adventure begins. Her grandmother’s instructions lead her to an apartment building full of drunks, monsters, attack dogs, and old crones but also to the truth about fairy tales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other.

Beartown (2017) | Discussion Questions

By the lake in Beartown is an old ice rink, and in that ice rink Kevin, Amat, Benji, and the rest of the town’s junior ice hockey team are about to compete in the national semi-finals—and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys.

Under that heavy burden, the match becomes the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown.

This is a story about a town and a game, but even more about loyalty, commitment, and the responsibilities of friendship; the people we disappoint even though we love them; and the decisions we make every day that come to define us.

Anxious People (2020) | Discussion Questions

Looking at real estate isn’t usually a life-or-death situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes a group of strangers hostage. The captives include a recently retired couple who relentlessly hunt down fixer-uppers to avoid the painful truth that they can’t fix their own marriage. There’s a wealthy bank director who has been too busy to care about anyone else and a young couple who are about to have their first child but can’t seem to agree on anything. Add to the mix an eighty-seven-year-old woman who has lived long enough not to be afraid of someone waving a gun in her face, a flustered but still-ready-to-make-a-deal real estate agent, and a mystery man who has locked himself in the apartment’s only bathroom, and you’ve got the worst group of hostages in the world.

Each of them carries a lifetime of grievances, hurts, secrets, and passions that are ready to boil over. None of them is entirely who they appear to be. And all of them—the bank robber included—desperately crave some sort of rescue. As the authorities and the media surround the premises, these reluctant allies will reveal surprising truths about themselves and set in motion a chain of events so unexpected that even they can hardly explain what happens next.

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A Few Notable Facts:

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Quotations:

• “I write because I don’t know how to deal with things without writing about them.”
• “Writing is introspection in the best form. It’s a conversation with yourself that you don’t know where it will go.”
• “What I’ve learned is that most people carry something painful with them that they’re struggling with. We’re more alike than we are different.”
• “Humor is one of the best ways to say the things we’re afraid to say.”
• “Writing is hard because you are constantly trying to put feelings into words, and words are rarely enough.”
• “Sometimes fiction helps people to deal with reality because we can project our fears and hopes into stories safely.”
• “One of the things I hope my books show is that it’s the people around us who save us, over and over again.”
• “Stories exist because people exist. Stories matter because people matter.”
• “Writing is about telling the truth as best you can, even if it’s fiction.”
• “People are complicated. We’re all a little broken, a little flawed, a little stubborn. But that’s what makes us interesting.”
• “Writing is a way of thinking through what I believe in, even if I don’t always find the answers.” 
• “I’m interested in people’s stories because everyone has one. And everyone’s story deserves to be told.”
• “Every character has a secret that even they don’t know about themselves.”
• “People rarely see themselves the way others do, and that can lead to so many misunderstandings. That’s what I  try to write about.”

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Additional Resources & Further Reading

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Sources

• Wikipedia
• ChatGPT
• fredrikbackmanbooks.com

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