I don’t hide that Backman is one of my favorite authors. I would generally say that Beartown and My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She’s Sorry are among my favorite books. This one was good, too, but did not quite live up to those two.
The story was an unexpected mystery—lots of little confusing elements you’re trying to unwrap as you go. A character is referred to as a “parent” and pronouns are skillfully avoided so you can’t tell when other people mention the mom or the dad if you know anything about them yet.
There’s a few mini reveals, like the way the police officers on the scene are father and son. There’s also an interesting character that bookends the first and last scenes which makes it feel almost like the credits are rolling. It’s a good, concrete closure.
Backman has a gift for immediate character development. In so few words, he can give you a picture of someone’s depth. It’s like a 3D snapshot in a few sentences.
He is also the master of epic sentences (even though he’s not writing in English) such as:
During some weeks in winter in the central part of Scandinavia the sky doesn’t seem to bother even attempting to impress us, it greets us with the color of newspaper in a puddle, and dawn leaves behind it a fog as if someone has been setting fire to ghosts.
I mean, that is GLORIOUS.
Overall, definitely worth the read, and the book deals with some serious issues. As always, Backman makes you cry and laugh on the same page. The people have so much reality behind them.
The mystery was a little simple if you’re used to reading real mysteries, but that wasn’t his point. So that’s very forgivable. Little bit (possibly) of moral questionability to the final decision at the end, but it was sweet.
