It will hardly be giving anything away to say that beneath
his curmudgeonly exterior, Ove has a heart of gold. Swedish writer
Fredrik Bachman unfolds Ove’s story slowly, taking time to reveal why
he became so ornery. Suffice it to say that Ove has had more than his
share of bad luck.
Now a lonely widower, he decides to commit suicide but keeps bungling
his attempts. That hardly sounds like a happy story, but Backman offers
up plenty of laughs to balance the sadness, especially as Ove is
unwillingly pulled into the life of his annoying new neighbors. Spunky
Parvaneh, the mother of the family next door, refuses to leave him
alone.
A Man Called Ove isn’t great
literature, but it’s a world-of-mouth hit. Initially ignored by major
reviewers, it was promoted by independent bookstores and took off. It
was on the paperback bestseller list for more than a year. The author
is a Swedish columnist and blogger.
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