A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman @SceptreBooks @Backmanland

Book Description:

Perfect for fans of Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine; Ruth Hogan’s The Keeper of Lost Things and Graeme Simsion’s The Rosie Project, A Man Called Ove is one of the best-loved and most life-affirming novels of the decade.

This multi-million-copy phenomenon is a funny, moving, uplifting tale of love and community that will leave you with a spring in your step.

‘Warm, funny, and almost unbearably moving’ Daily Mail

‘Rescued all those men who constantly mean to read novels but never get round to it’ Spectator Books of the Year

At first sight, Ove is almost certainly the grumpiest man you will ever meet. He thinks himself surrounded by idiots – neighbours who can’t reverse a trailer properly, joggers, shop assistants who talk in code, and the perpetrators of the vicious coup d’etat that ousted him as Chairman of the Residents’ Association. He will persist in making his daily inspection rounds of the local streets.

But isn’t it rare, these days, to find such old-fashioned clarity of belief and deed? Such unswerving conviction about what the world should be, and a lifelong dedication to making it just so?

In the end, you will see, there is something about Ove that is quite irresistible . . .

My Thoughts:

I am ashamed to say I have had this book sat on my Kindle for over six years! I knew as soon as I read the book description that I had to read it and can’t believe it has taken me this long to finally get round to reading it!

Ove is a widow with no children or family. He is someone who most, if not all of us, would probably dislike and especially hate to live in the same street as. He is a stubborn, opinionated man who is a loner and a stickler for rules. So why did I love his character?

There is just something about Ove that made my heart swell. For all his stubbornness and hostility towards others, there is so much more to him. We get glimpses of what life was like for him as a child and his marriage to his late wife. The more I got to know him, the more my fondness for him grew. It’s the unlikely friendships that he strikes up in this novel that really appealed to me and by the end I was both crying and laughing at this wonderful man.

A Man Called Ove is a truly touching and heart-warming story that everyone should read. I am so annoyed with myself for leaving it so long before reading it! I adored Ove and couldn’t help but laugh at some of his antics in teaching people lessons about rules, or trying to prove a point and get his way. The ending in particular was highly emotional and I really didn’t want to turn the last page as I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to this character who brightened up my hours spent reading his story. An absolute gem of a book!