A Man Called Ove––Don't Miss This Book

I finally uploaded my manuscript for Pairs on Nationals to the publisher, and it’s on its way to becoming a book.  Yay!  That done, I’m getting ready for a trip to Germany to visit with Peter’s family in the mountain town of Garmisch.  I never thought I’d have time to write a blog, but after reading A Man Called Ove, I just had to make time to recommend this amazing book.

It’s about a grumpy old man who has reason to be grumpy.  He’s had a lot of tragedy in his life, including the death of his wife, the one person who truly understood him––“…if anyone had asked, he would have told them that he never lived before he met her.  And not after either.”

In Ove’s eyes, the world is black and white––some things are wrong, some are right.  Period.  And if they’re wrong, he won’t give up until the wrong is righted, whether he’s been overcharged for dinner or sees the bureaucracy mistreating his neighbor.

Here's what the back-cover blurb says:

“People think him bitter, and he thinks himself surrounded by idiots.

        Ove’s well ordered, solitary world get a shake-up one November morning with the appearance of new neighbors, a chatty young couple and their two boisterous daughters, who announce their arrival by accidentally flattening Ove’s mailbox with their U-Haul.  What follows is a heartwrming tale of unkempt cats, unlikely friendships, and a community’s unexpected reassessment of the one person they thought they had all figured out.”

A Man Called Ove is written by Swedish author Fredrik Backman.  It was originally published in Sweden and has been translated and read around the world.  You will feel Ove’s sorrow and pain, but you will also laugh out loud as he tries to understand events swirling around him.

If you’ve read this book––or when you read it––let me know what you think.