Anxious People

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.