Fredrik Backman’s unique voice is back and he is on top form with Anxious People. He is an author who it is impossible to pigeon hole. I have read all his works and they are excellent and so distinctive. This is a novel about what it means to be human and the impact that one life can have on another. It’s all about the human condition and the, sometimes chaotic, lives we try to make sense of.

A bank robber is having a really bad day when it becomes clear that the bank is a cashless branch. Matters go from bad to worse when the robber ends up holding a group viewing an apartment as hostages. It is up to father and son cops (they are a story in their own right) to try and deal with the situation. When they con their way into the apartment, the robber has disappeared. A lot of the narrative concerns interviews with the hostages, all of whom, have a story to tell. The character development is just perfect and you get an insight into so many different lives. Through these characters you gain an understanding of the values that make us good humans: understanding, compassion, empathy and kindness.

This book has the ability to make you laugh and cry in equal measure. It is highly readable and very right for the times in which we live. It is told with great wit and a dry sense of humour. There is a cleverness to Anxious People that I have yet to come across in another novel in 2020. I urge you to read it and all Backman’s other works. You will not be sorry.

Thank you NetGalley and Michael Joseph for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Fredrik Backman never disappoints. Anxious People is more Ove than Beartown, with quirky characters, a clever plot and commentary on so many current issues. It is basically a story of normal people caught up in unusual events. This book will touch your heart - it will make you laugh and make you cry.
Set in Sweden there are cultural references and quirks which add to the depth of the story. It is translated from Swedish, but done really well.
Thank you to @NetGalley, Fredrick Backman and his publishers for the opportunity to review this lovely novel.

I love this author's books so much that nothing I write in a review will come anywhere near close to how much I enjoy his books. If you haven't discovered him yet, and you are a fan of great stories played out by fantastic characters, please do give him a try. This one isn't a bad place to start now you are here...
As with all his books, the story contained herein is a little quirky. It is full of things that aren't what they seem and that's events and people. A bank robbery, a viewing, a husband parking the car. Eight strangers thrown together by circumstances who slowly start to open up to each other. A catalyst that sparks emotions and delivers dilemmas.
And that's all you need to know about the story... I'll leave you to discover the rest as the author intends.
I've said that this book is emotional. Well, it is that, and it's definitely thought provoking. But it's also very funny in places. It's such a character driven book that, to pull this off, the author has to be well versed in people watching and observational skills. This is definitely true here. Especially the strange quirky things that they do along the way that don't quite make sense at the time but, wow, when you get the whole picture it becomes so clear you'll probably non and grin to yourself.
It's also a bit about preconceptions and assumptions and how things are not always as they seem on face value. You really need to dig quite deep sometimes to get to the truth, if at all. Meandering around and about several twists and turns to get there. But, when you do get there, it's beautiful.
In fact, the only bad thing I can say about this book is that it had to end. I did feel that I had connected so well with the majority of the characters that leaving them made me feel a bit bereft. I also feel that certain characters may have more to say in the future, either in the form of a sequel or just a side role in a future book. I'd love to reconnect...
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Anxious People is one of those books that feels impossible to describe. It’s about a bank robbery that doesn’t happen and hostages that aren’t hostages. More than anything, it’s a character-driven story following around 8-9 characters in an extraordinary level of depth. It shows you how they all came to be in this unusual situation and how they could move forward.

With strong social messages calling for compassion over criminal justice, Anxious People definitely questions the nature of the police force and its purpose, whilst featuring police officers as characters. Sometimes Backman’s messages sing through the writing too loudly and feel forceful, but I appreciated the ideas being conveyed. There’s a great section in the middle about what makes a criminal a criminal and poses new ways of looking at the situation considering more information that you can be given. It’s thoughtful and clever in an addictive way.

At the start, I felt confident this would be a new favourite book because of its creative premise and strong writing, however, the more I read, the more exhausted I became by it. The premise is repeated constantly and the writing is overwhelming. Every character is a little bit different in that quirky way books sometimes try to be. At points, it’s unbearably quirky and tries so hard that the writing becomes cringe-worthy. I think this could have been solved if less of the characters were so wild. By making EVERY character different, they all felt the same. The final third of the book dragged on for all eternity and every chapter had that final chapter feeling.

This meant that I was left a bit torn. I do think this is such an interesting book that so many people will enjoy, but for me it was too much.

This is my first Backman read and not generally the type of book I would go for. The first few chapters felt so disjointed that I was beginning to think this wasn't the book for me. But then, everything started to fall into place, I began to understand some of the characters, I caught myself laughing out loud one moment and the next I was reflecting upon my own life and the anxieties we all face.
It is a book about many things and I think each reader will resonate with and appreciate, different aspects. Backman certainly has a way of highlighting what it means to be human, in all its flawed quirkiness. By the end I found myself touched by the character's lives and how, sometimes unknowingly, they all interconnected in one way or another. Without giving anything away, by the final chapters, I was most definitely rooting for the bank robber.

Backman does it again! A funny, poignant book. What appears to be a ridiculous story, is actually a perfect insight into humanity - love and loss, fear and hope, the mundane and the extraordinary. Initially I wasn’t totally sure if I totally bought this book, but by the end, I could only applaud how Backman shows us humanity truths in the most beautiful, crazy and funny way possible. Another gem!

Brilliant. I laughed so much reading this book. I loved the story and the characters and the writing style. There is humour and sadness and a story which really makes you think about the world we live in. This is a memorable read.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

As an avid fan of Backman, I am always sceptical when I read his newest novel: Will it live up to the hype? Will I be disappointed and wished I’d stopped at his last? Well, Backman has done it again, pulling another corker out of his bag of magical storylines and fiction writing.

Anxious People is a brilliantly written story of a desperate parent going to desperate lengths including bank robbery and hostage taking. Or so you think - but the actual story is about all those involved including the bank robber but also each hostage. Each person has their own anxieties, their own journey and their own reasons for being at that place, at that time.

As one would expect from Backman with his own superb style of writing, Anxious People faces grief, desperation, heartache and the intricacies of human relationships head on. His tender wit, comedic timing and insightful compassion will challenge your own unconscious bias at every opportunity.

I truly loved this book and cannot wait to own a physical copy. Thank you Netgalley and Penguin UK for the ARC.

He has done it again! Honestly the way that Backman is a master manipulator of emotions and there hasn't been a single book of his that hasn't had tears prickling my eyes and breath catching in my chest and this is no exception.

This is the story of a bank robber who ends up taking hostages at an apartment viewing and so much more. As always with Backman the story is more than it seems, it about the impact we have on each other life's and the paths that leads us down. I think the author is an emotional Sherlock Holmes, he manages to see and put into words all the micro feelings and emotions we feel day to day.

Such a clever and witty story with a real emotional roller-coaster ride throughout, fans of Backman will not be disappointed with this latest treasure.

This is a book about idiots – or is it about everyday people finding themselves caught up in idiotic circumstances? Whichever it is this is a book that kept me thoroughly entertained throughout. Fredrick Backman always introduces us to the quirkiest of characters. I loved A Man Called Ove and this book had a selection of very different people, all with their own issues and anxieties, who get caught up in a hostage situation like no other! It wasn’t meant to happen; the hostage taker didn’t intend for it to happen but here they all are. Some of the people did not instantly appeal to me but as the book wore on so did my understanding and compassion for each and every one increase. There were several really funny, laugh out loud quotes and the author has such a remarkable talent for making the most mundane things extraordinarily amusing. He has such a way with words. One minute he had me giggling and the next feeling awed by his beautiful and emotional writing. It takes great talent to combine hilarious situations with heart tugging emotional ones and some very deep meanings to really make one think. Fredrick Backman is one of those authors. A clever and fascinating book. My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher, Penguin Michael Joseph, for a pre-release copy of this book in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

"That we are all of our next choices, too, all of our tomorrows."

This book is just glorious. It brings together all of my favourite aspects of Fredrink Backman as an author, the hilarious side that we've seen in books like A Man Called Ove, and the poignant side such as in Beartown. And then blend is just so spectacular that there will be parts of it that I will likely remember for a long time.

This story is about a bank robber, but it's more than that, it's the choices we each make every single day, and how the choices we make define who we are, but maybe nto who we will end up being. I loved the mixed modes in this book, with the back and forth between interviews and stories. I loved how it made me think, made me pick up my own biases and made me address them differently. I just loved so much about this book.

Well, I usually review books straight after I’ve finished them, but with this one I had to leave my mind ticking over for 24 hours, to make absolutely sure. And, yep: this is, hands down, my new favourite book. Not just of the year, but of all time. And that’s high praise indeed (if I do say so myself).

Category: Fiction, humour. Plot: A poorly-planned bank robbery, gone very wrong, sees a group of Swedish strangers suddenly held hostage during their apartment viewing on the day before New Year’s Eve. It’s up to a small-town father-son cop-duo to work out how the bank robber disappeared into thin air.

My favourite 3 things about it:

1. The characters’ lives and histories intertwine in such clever ways. Usually a story having a lot of characters confuses me, but this was not only very easy to follow, it was absolute genius how the characters link together or help each other.
2. The genuinely humorous dialogue mixed with genuinely deep wisdom. I’m not sure a book has ever done both this well before. Picking a single favourite quote was so difficult!
3. This book hooked me right from the dedication through to the acknowledgments. How often is a dedication paragraph Instagrammable?! I love this writer.

The characters have such heavy histories yet they each felt very believable. Even though I technically couldn’t relate to any of them, I felt like I could after reading this, you know? You don’t know yet, but I hope you find out!

Favourite quote: It should be noted that when she died, the bank robber’s mum consisted of so much gin and tonic that they didn’t dare cremate her because of the risk of explosion, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t have good advice to offer.

Anxious People is out on August 20th, thank you NetGalley for early access to what will no doubt be my most recommended book of 2020!

I have SO much love for this book. The more I spent time with it, the more I fell head over heels.

This story shines a light into the dark corners anyone could find themselves in at one time or another. It’s a rare and hopeful beacon that is utterly and perfectly endearing. I wanted to wrap my arms around every page, and every person gracing them.

Yet surely, this must be THE most erratic gaggle of humans to be held hostage – EVER! Each total ‘stranger’ has their own brand of chaos, which they have no problem sharing at the wrong place or time.

When does a monkey, a frog and an elk become the catalyst for one single bad idea? What is preventing Zara from opening the letter she received a decade ago? How long has Estelle’s husband been parking the car? Where ARE Leonard’s trousers? The answers are all precious little nuggets of life.

All this irregular behaviour while being held ‘captive’ is akin to spontaneous group therapy, helping to seal the cracks appearing in their hearts and souls before they shatter beyond repair. This troubled troop scatter nuanced bread crumbs wherever they go. This lead me to a very special place indeed, and fundamental human kindness was all it took to guide me there.

Magnificently mindful, emphatically farcical, and unquestionably recommended.

Backman is a genius. After falling in love with Beartown and its inhabitants, I was exceptionally excited to hear of the publication of Anxious People. Right from the start, I knew I was in for another joyous celebration of Backman’s unique and exceptionally brilliant writing style.

Underneath a layer of humour and wit can be found so many amazing characters, layered stories and an exploration of what our life on this earth is about. I would fall so short in trying to explain how great Backman’s writing is, how brilliant his stories unfold, and how amazingly his characters are portrayed. All of this in a novel that has been translated (and superbly at that), but it does make me wonder how great the original Swedish transcript must be.

I'm not always a fan of the 'quirky, life-affirming, feel-good fiction' genre. There's a lot of it about and like all 'trendy' genres the quantity often comes at expense of quality. But when you read novels by Frederik Backman, the Swedish author whose early books were among those that increased the popularity of the genre, you realise why they have so many copycats. This latest book must be the best he's written yet - the quality of the writing is superb, particularly in the first part of the novel. It would be so easy to dismiss his books as 'feel-good fiction' written to push certain emotional buttons - but the descriptions, the insights and turn of phrase here is right up there with all the best literary fiction writers.

This novel centres on a bank robbery gone wrong . The robber - desperate and inexperienced - ends up holding a disparate group of people hostage who had been taking part in an open viewing of an apartment near the bank. The action flicks between timeframes - the hostage situation itself, the aftermath where two small town policemen try to piece together what happened, and the backstories of the characters. It's never confusing or annoying (as time-jump novels often are) - it works perfectly to unfold the story at the right pace and provide twists and surprises. And Backman certainly provides a few of them, both in terms of the central event and in the revelations about the characters themselves.

Like all Backman's novels, it's slightly satirical/farcical and not necessarily meant to be taken as a gospel version of gritty reality. I'm not always good at spotting satire in fiction - I like it clearly signposted - so I always find it helps to establish early on that I need to stop thinking so much about what is 'believable'. The reason it's hard to tell is that Backman's observations are so piercingly accurate and his narrative is so full of wisdom. But then his characters are a bit larger than life, his dialogue reads well but would probably never unfold that way in real life, and loose ends get tied up just too neatly.

As well as being very wise, it's also often very funny, without being silly. The underlying themes are serious and sad - death, disappointment, modern dislocation, loneliness, fear. But the way things are described will make you laugh as much as cry (though I did shed some tears at the end as well). Backman writes with such underlying kindness towards humanity. He doesn't romanticise people, there's no rose-tinted spectacles. The very premise of his book is that people are idiots. But he shows such great compassion towards people, despite their idiocy. His characters may be monstrous at times, but are always driven by some underlying anxiety or insecurity or basic misunderstanding. And there is something very comforting about that.

Backman's books don't just make you feel good - although they certainly do that. They are funny, warm and satisfying. They also make you feel kinder towards your fellow humans. And that is surely a rare gift for a writer to give a reader.

A bank robber on the run locks himself in with an over-enthusiastic estate agent, two bitter IKEA-addicts, a pregnant woman, a suicidal multi-millionaire and a rabbit. In the end the robber gives up and lets everyone go, but when the police storm the apartment it is . . . empty.
I loved this book, it made me laugh. Fredrik Bachmans books are really entertaining. I thought Anxious People was his best book since A Man called Ove.
After reading a lot of crime books this book was a breadth of fresh air.
Thanks to NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read this book.

Full of humour, awkward moments and anxious (some more than others) people!
I loved it. Fredrik is a man of many talents when it comes to writing literature. He has the habit of bringing things to life and you feel a connection between yourself and the characters.
The storyline itself is so brilliantly simple, so funny and sad all at the same time. It was a joy to read.
‘Beartown’ is one of my all time favourite books and ‘Anxious People’ will be joining that list too.

As one of my favourite authors I could not wait to read this one. Yet again we have relatable characters, amazing plot and a though provoking novel. My friends will be hearing about this one and I look forward to more wonderful writing from Fredrik Backman!

Fredrik Backman demonstrates with style and panache his remarkable and astute understanding of what it is to be human in this profound and philosophical locked room mystery that beguiles in how it pulls at our heartstrings, with its emotionally charged heartbreak, tragedy, humour and in the joy of human connectivity. He creates a host of stellar and diverse characters, including a rabbit, anxious, with messy and chaotic lives, and their idiocy, not only their idiocy, but all of our idiocy too. This is the perfect read for our troubled times, resonating deeply at so many levels, and if you don't connect with it immediately, I urge you to stick with it, the pay off will come in spades. When everything goes wrong for a bank robber, he ends up holding a group of hostages at an apartment viewing.

In this character driven narrative, with its maze like twists and turns, there are surprises as we learn of the stories of these characters, each of whom are skilfully developed. When the police storm the apartment, the bank robber has disappeared, what happened? The characters are interviewed, but all to little avail. Backman's storytelling is full of hope in how it zeroes in on the state of the human soul, outlining the incomparable value of kindness, understanding, humanity, forgiveness and compassion in a world of human idiocy. I found this novel to be reading of the highest order, so entertaining, with the ability to make you laugh and cry. It is touching novel that cements Backman's reputation as a terrific must read author, smart, offbeat and imaginative. I have no hesitation in recommending this highly, I have no doubt I will be returning to it, time and time again in the future. Many thanks to Penguin Michael Joseph for an ARC.

Wonderful book. Superb writing from this amazing author, he really understands what makes characters interesting. I loved Beartown and I loved this - it is a must read