Where to Start with Fredrik Backman
Fredrik Backman is a Swedish author, blogger, and columnist who became one of the most widely read novelists in the world with his debut, A Man Called Ove (2012). Born in 1981 in Helsingborg, he worked as a freelance writer and blogger before his first novel became a publishing phenomenon, selling over eight million copies and being translated into more than forty languages. Backman writes about ordinary people in recognizable settings: housing associations, small towns, amateur hockey leagues. His characters tend to be stubborn, anxious, difficult, or lonely, and his gift is making you love them anyway. His other novels include My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry (2013), Britt-Marie Was Here (2014), the Beartown trilogy (2016-2022), Anxious People (2019), and My Friends (2024). He lives in Stockholm with his wife and two children.
Start here
A Man Called Ove
Fredrik Backman · 337 pages · 2012 · Easy
Themes: friendship, community, grief, humor, second chances
Ove is fifty-nine, drives a Saab, and has strong opinions about everything from the correct way to back up a trailer to the moral failings of people who drive BMWs. Since the death of his wife Sonja, he has settled into a routine of inspecting the neighborhood, enforcing parking rules, and generally making himself unbearable. But when a young Iranian-Swedish family moves in next door and accidentally runs over his mailbox, Ove’s carefully guarded loneliness starts to unravel.
Why Start Here
A Man Called Ove is Backman’s debut and his most universally beloved book. It establishes everything that makes his writing distinctive: the dry humor, the precise observation of everyday Swedish life, the ability to make you laugh and cry within the same paragraph. Most importantly, it introduces his signature character type, the difficult person who turns out to be deeply kind underneath all the gruffness.
This novel is also the most accessible entry point to Backman because it tells a complete, self-contained story. His later works, particularly the Beartown trilogy, are more ambitious in scope but also more demanding. Starting with Ove lets you fall in love with Backman’s voice before committing to longer, more complex narratives.
What to Expect
A warm, funny, emotionally rich 337-page novel that alternates between Ove’s present-day life and flashbacks to his past. The humor is dry and distinctly Scandinavian. The supporting cast, including an overweight cat and a persistent neighbor, is wonderful. Expect to feel unexpectedly attached to a fictional grumpy old man. Adapted into two films: a Swedish version (2015) and A Man Called Otto with Tom Hanks (2022).
Alternatives
Fredrik Backman · 352 pages · 2019 · Easy
A failed bank robber bursts into an apartment viewing and accidentally takes eight strangers hostage. The situation is absurd from the start: the robber is incompetent, the hostages are a collection of deeply anxious people with their own problems, and the police officers investigating the case are a father-and-son duo with unresolved issues of their own. When the robber somehow vanishes from a locked apartment, the investigation becomes a comedy of errors in which everyone’s version of events reveals more about themselves than about the crime.
Why Start Here
If you have already read A Man Called Ove and want to go deeper into Backman’s world, Anxious People is the ideal next step. It takes his signature blend of humor and emotional depth and applies it to a larger, more structurally ambitious story. Where Ove focused on one man, this novel juggles nearly a dozen characters, each carrying their own weight of anxiety, regret, and longing for connection.
Backman’s insight that everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about is the engine of the entire book. Each hostage’s story peels back another layer, and what begins as a farce gradually becomes something surprisingly moving.
What to Expect
A 352-page comic novel structured as a series of witness interviews, flashbacks, and narrative twists. The tone shifts fluidly between funny and poignant. The plot is more intricate than Backman’s earlier novels, with a final revelation that reframes everything. Adapted into a Netflix series in 2021.