Fredrik Backman has been on my radar ever since I read A Man Called Ove. He has a unique perspective and a wry way of delivering his insights on the human condition. In Anxious People, Backman has taken a bank robbery gone wrong, a hostage taking of some of the most eccentric and unlikely group of hostages, and a father/son police duo who bungle their way through the investigation of a crime that may or may not have happened. As you can see, there is much to work with, and Backman in his inimitable style takes a deep dive into what makes us human and how even strangers can rise to the occasion and help each other.

From the first page Backman draws us in, by explaining with great insight the existential dilemmas that we encounter by being human:

This story is about a lot of things, but mostly about idiots. So it needs saying from the outset that it’s always very easy to declare that other people are idiots, but only if you forget how idiotically difficult being human is. Especially if you have other people you’re trying to be a reasonably good human being for. Because there’s such an unbelievable amount that we’re all supposed to be able to cope with these days. You’re supposed to have a job, and somewhere to live, and a family, and you’re supposed to pay taxes and have clean underwear and remember the password to your damn Wi-Fi. Some of us never manage to get the chaos under control, so our lives simply carry on, the world spinning through space at two million miles an hour while we bounce about on its surface like so many lost socks. …We don’t have a plan, we just do our best to get through the day, because there’ll be another one coming along tomorrow. Sometimes it hurts, it really hurts, for no other reason than the fact that our skin doesn’t feel like it’s ours. Sometimes we panic, because the bills need paying and we have to be grown-up and we don’t know how, because it’s so horribly, desperately easy to fail at being grown-up. Because everyone loves someone, and anyone who loves someone has had those desperate nights where we lie awake trying to figure out how we can afford to carry on being human beings. Sometimes that makes us do things that seem ridiculous in hindsight, but which felt like the only way out at the time. One single really bad idea. That’s all it takes.”

And indeed, for the failed bank robber and unlucky hostage taker, it was just one bad idea that brought a disparate group of people together in an apartment that day. But it was because of that unexpected meeting that something truly good happened as well. 

Backman’s trademark is finding a spark of human kindness in the most unlikely of people. He writes with such compassion and honesty that it allows us to see with new eyes those around us and even ourselves.

Brenda’s Rating:  *****(5 Out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Sharon, Ken, Keith, Marian and Lauren

Book Study worthy? YES!

Read in ebook format.