Anxious People by Fredrick Backman (#37) #EarlyReview

• Print: 352 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (September 8, 2020)
• ASIN: B084GB475S

AMAZON

Viewing an apartment normally doesn’t turn into a life-or-death situation, but this particular open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes everyone in the apartment hostage. As the pressure mounts, the eight strangers begin slowly opening up to one another and reveal long-hidden truths.

First is Zara, a wealthy bank director who has been too busy to care about anyone else until tragedy changed her life. Now, she’s obsessed with visiting open houses to see how ordinary people live—and, perhaps, to set an old wrong to right. Then there’s Roger and Anna-Lena, an Ikea-addicted retired couple who are on a never-ending hunt for fixer-uppers to hide the fact that they don’t know how to fix their own failing marriage. Julia and Ro are a young lesbian couple and soon-to-be parents who are nervous about their chances for a successful life together since they can’t agree on anything. And there’s Estelle, an eighty-year-old woman who has lived long enough to be unimpressed by a masked bank robber waving a gun in her face. And despite the story she tells them all, Estelle hasn’t really come to the apartment to view it for her daughter, and her husband really isn’t outside parking the car.

As police surround the premises and television channels broadcast the hostage situation live, the tension mounts and even deeper secrets are slowly revealed. Before long, the robber must decide which is the more terrifying prospect: going out to face the police, or staying in the apartment with this group of impossible people.

Rich with Fredrik Backman’s “pitch-perfect dialogue and an unparalleled understanding of human nature” (Shelf Awareness), Anxious People’s whimsical plot serves up unforgettable insights into the human condition and a gentle reminder to be compassionate to all the anxious people we encounter every day.

Fredrik Backman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, Britt-Marie Was Here, Beartown, Us Against You, and two novellas, And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer and The Deal of a Lifetime, as well as one work of nonfiction, Things My Son Needs to Know About the World. His books are published in more than forty countries. His latest novel is Anxious People. He lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with his wife and two children. Connect with him on Twitter @BackmanLand or on Instagram @Backmansk.

REVIEW:

You can tell this is great writing, right from the moment that you open the book.

It's a witty plot, a bungled burglary to a botched hostage situation to a missing perp. I laughed out loud at moments. Even if you have never been in a hostage situation, the characters were so well crafted that their personalities came shining right through the story. The characters and their aspects were quite enthralling at times, you really wanted to try to figure it all out. At one point I thought I had too. I was totally wrong though. I didn't expect the outcome of it all either. Seriously, I'm floored. Maybe people won't see cops in such a bad light, but it is only a book after all...

My first time reading this authors' works and it definitely won't be the last. He is brilliant! LIterary lovers will thoroughly enjoy this one!

3.5/5

**Compensation may be earned from the link within. A NetGalley copy was provided to facilitate this review. Opinions are owned by Freda's Voice.