Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller A People Book of the Week, Book of the Month Club selection, and Best of Fall in Good Housekeeping, PopSugar, The Washington Post, New York Post, Shondaland, CNN, and more! “[A] quirky, big-hearted novel…Wry, wise, and often laugh-out-loud funny, it’s a wholly original story that delivers pure pleasure.” –People From the #1 New York Times bestselling … wholly original story that delivers pure pleasure.” —People
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove comes a charming, poignant novel about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined.
Looking at real estate isn’t usually a life-or-death situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes a group of strangers hostage. The captives include a recently retired couple who relentlessly hunt down fixer-uppers to avoid the painful truth that they can’t fix their own marriage. There’s a wealthy bank director who has been too busy to care about anyone else and a young couple who are about to have their first child but can’t seem to agree on anything, from where they want to live to how they met in the first place. Add to the mix an eighty-seven-year-old woman who has lived long enough not to be afraid of someone waving a gun in her face, a flustered but still-ready-to-make-a-deal real estate agent, and a mystery man who has locked himself in the apartment’s only bathroom, and you’ve got the worst group of hostages in the world.
Each of them carries a lifetime of grievances, hurts, secrets, and passions that are ready to boil over. None of them is entirely who they appear to be. And all of them–the bank robber included–desperately crave some sort of rescue. As the authorities and the media surround the premises these reluctant allies will reveal surprising truths about themselves and set in motion a chain of events so unexpected that even they can hardly explain what happens next.
Rich with Fredrik Backman’s “pitch-perfect dialogue and an unparalleled understanding of human nature” (Shelf Awareness), Anxious People is an ingeniously constructed story about the enduring power of friendship, forgiveness, and hope–the things that save us, even in the most anxious times.
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Anxious People is very different from author Fredrik Backman’s prior books. There is no misunderstood, lonely curmudgeon or hockey-playing teens. There are plenty of interesting characters though.
The characters are introduced a bit haphazardly. The story layout is interesting with after-the-crime police interrogations interspersed with real-time action. At first, it seems disjointed, but a few chapters in, and the flow of the story becomes apparent. This is not a book to be skimmed or read quickly. The subtle statements about and from each character eventually become woven together so that readers see a rich pattern of how each of our own decisions to act or not act can have a significant impact on someone else.
Anxious People is a study of human nature done with a bit of dry humor and a lot of compassion for we humans who try hard but are still imperfect. A #MustRead2020 book.
Hands down my favorite book of 2020.
This is a completely charming novel about a bank robbery that never took place and a hostage situation that ties eight different characters together in hilarious and somewhat poignant ways.
I laughed out loud so many times and then cried like a baby at the end. Such keen insight into neurosis and relationships. Beautiful.
I can’t think of a better book to read this year in particular and especially this month during #nationalsuicideawarenessmonth.
Source: ARC provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review
Fredrik Backman has this remarkable ability to conjure up stories about every day people and present them in such unique ways. In Anxious People, he takes a bank robber who wishes to steal a specific amount of money but when the robbery itself goes awry, the robber runs and winds up at an apartment viewing that seems to have attracted the strangest people ever. Each person, including the bank robber gets to express their story where Backman delves into their background, showing us how they got to be where they are. It’s through masterful storytelling that he puts in to perspective human behaviours. With this random group of socially-awkward individuals and by the author’s description, idiots, the greater the insight.
One character in particular, Zara, stands out to me. She comes off to me as a cross between two of Backman’s most beloved characters – Ove and Britt-Marie – but definitely way more prickly and blunt to the point of rudeness. I was so frustrated with her yet compelled to know more about her. Her sessions with her psychiatrist are so trying that they border on comical because Zara is who she is and even at her worst, she has the most remarkable observations about life.
Anxious People requires a bit more concentration because there are so many characters and POVs, and the chapters tend to jump around so much. I usually have a harder go at reading stories set up like that but it’s Backman, and I know he always has something good in store. The payoff is worth it when connections start making sense. This novel is a testament to his craft as he develops mini stories within a grander story and eventually has all the pieces mean something and fit together. The reader wonders what obsucre events have to do with anything but it all becomes clear at the end. Backman also includes a slight twist that deserves a tip of the hat.
Anxious People will have you run the gamut of emotions from anxiety to grief to forgiveness. As with some of his previous works there is mention of suicide. Yet the tone is balanced against all of the quirky details and tangents throughout the story. (Oh, just you wait until the rabbit comes into it!) Backman is simply incredible and he’s gifted us with another impactful novel. All these characters feel real and I know they’ve resonated with readers who feel that there’s a bit of them in here. As for me, I was charmed by everyone in the end, none more so than Zara.
Thought-provoking, heartbreaking, and exceptionally witty!
Anxious People is a complex, insightful, funny story set on the day before New Year’s Eve that takes you on a journey into the lives of an amateur bank robber, eight unintended hostages, and two police officers with a history of their own.
The prose is amusing and poignant. The characterization is well-drawn with a whole slew of characters that are quirky, sympathetic, and endearing. And the plot is a delightfully clever blend of moral dilemmas, drama, tragedy, skewed perception, oddball shenanigans, relationship dynamics, unlikely friendships, and the importance of compassion.
Overall, Anxious People is an impactful, touching, darkly comedic tale by Backman that once again highlights his innate ability to delve into and expose both society’s weaknesses and ridiculous presumptions and humanities flaws and vulnerabilities in an enlightening, meaningful, and entertaining way.
Honestly you will get confused when you start this book but just stick with it. It is so worth your time to read it. I confess in the beginning I had quite a few unh? moments which eventually turned into ah moments when it all finally came together.
First time I’ve read this author and I can definitely understand the hype over his work.
Anxious People is a book about how you really never know the connections that are made between people everyday. Connections you may never know exists. That is of course unless you decide to rob a bank that then turns into a hostage situation and well there may be some connections you may have otherwise missed.
What if your big mistakes, those things you wish you could turn back time and change really weren’t as damaging as you thought, what if you could fix all the wrongs you encounter, what if, what if, what if…….
What if in reality we’re all inherently scared and maybe life isn’t worth trudging through anymore. What if we’re all questioning where we went wrong or if what we’re doing is the right thing. Maybe we don’t need to fake it anymore. Maybe there are others out there just like us who are just as anxious. Maybe you’ll meet them in the most unlikely of places; like an apartment viewing on New Years Eve and become a hostage of a would be bank robber if it all hadn’t gone so horribly wrong.
Maybe when you come out on the other side of it things will look a little brighter and maybe all the idiots are still idiots but also people you really come to like and understand a whole lot more.
**Thank you to Netgalley & Simon and Schuster Canada for the ARC of Anxious People. Review was voluntarily written and is based solely on my opinions upon finishing the book**
Fredrik Backman works his magic again with his spot-on observations of humanity and the myriad of humerous and tragic situations we inadvertently get ourselves into because as the narrator says (and the characters admit) we’re idiots!
The story of a bank-robbery gone awry and the hostage situation that ensues is well told through a third person narrator and police interview transcripts. Laugh-out-loud funny, this book also runs readers through a long and quite comprehensive list of feelings as readers learn about the characters (each so rich and deep, so complex, so wonderfully human and humanly flawed), and what led them to be in the apartment that day. Full of surprises, this is a quickly paced book you won’t want to put down.
The characters, strangers at the beginning of the day, discover that they share more in common than just their hours together, and Backman shows us once again that we are far more alike and connected by our humanness than we are different due to age, gender or ideologies.
Anxious People is poignant, funny, heartwarming, heartaching book that will make you feel so good for having read it! DO NOT MISS THIS BOOK!! It will rank as one of the best books of the year. I personally think it would also make a great play!!
My sincere thanks to NetGalley, Atria, and the author for allowing me to read a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. All opinions expressed here are my own.
I love Fredrik Backman’s books because they always have such amazing characters–they’re so real to life. He has this fantastic way of creating dynamic, totally believable characters, complete with flaws and strengths. He also has a way of inviting the reader to almost become a character, thinking about whether you would react and respond the same way his characters do or in different ways. What I love most about Backman’s books, however, is how they make me empathize with others. At the outset of Anxious People, I had the thought that I might have to read it in small doses because several of the characters were annoying or abrasive. But as I continued reading Backman skillfully pulled back the layers on each character, taking me past their outward actions to their hearts. I found myself not only wanting to reread the book when I finished it but wanting to restart right in the middle of the book with my new understanding of and appreciation for the characters so that I could erase my earlier annoyance with them and instead read every moment with my newfound insights into their true characters. These sweet, beautiful, totally flawed and totally relatable people stole my heart–and also reminded me of how often in real life if we would stop being annoyed with people and see who they really are, our hearts would melt and we would do whatever we could to help them.
Besides the wonderful cast of characters, Backman’s plot and the setting were so interesting–the majority of the book takes place in one apartment–and there were several twists that I did not see coming at all. It was a fascinating read that was so thought-provoking. I adored it, and I want everyone I know to read it so we can talk about it!
5 stars. Definitely one of my favorites for 2020.
I read an ARC of #AnxiousPeople provided by the publisher via #NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
I have now read all of Mr. Bachman’s books and have enjoyed them all. This book had me engaged from the very beginning.
There are a handful of characters and they are all well developed. He is a genius when it comes to portraying people, their emotions, their habits, their “quirkiness”.
This book reminded me of a Seinfeld episode. There are lots of things going on involving most of the usual cast and they don’t all get tied together until the end. I knew that there were underlying connections but I didn’t really guess all of them until they were revealed.
As you know from the quite extensive blurb this is “ a poignant comedy about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined.”
I took a lot of notes about things that made me laugh but to share them would ruin the surprise for you, the new reader. I have never been so amused while learning lessons about life.
“Everyone inside the apartment had their own complexes, their own demons and anxieties: Roger was wounded, Anna-Lenna wanted to go home, Julia was tired, Ro was worried, Zara was in pain, and Estelle . . .well . . .no one really knew what Estelle was yet. Possibly not even Estelle”
Along with the narration of the events taking place there are also pages of interviews. After the event the police are trying very hard not to personally implode as they interview the hostages who really weren’t hostages!!!
This book is best gone into blind, you won’t understand how incredibly well written it is until you immerse yourself in the story.
If you have read any of Mr. Bachman’s books before, BUY THIS BOOK. If you have never read any of Mr. Bachman’s books, BUY THIS BOOK.
There are some serious issues dealt with along with the lighter tone of the novel including: divorce, lack of leadership, betrayal by someone you love, psychological problems including thoughts of suicide.
I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through Edelweiss.
It is set to publish on September 8, 2020
Fredrik Backman writes the very best characters even if they are idiots (his words)!!! This is a story about a bank robbery without money being stolen and a hostage situation! This story is full of humor and at the same time lots of tears were shed while I read. I read this book in one day because I just couldn’t put it down! If you loved A Man Called Ove, you will love Anxious People! I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.
You can tell this is great writing, right from the moment that you open the book.
It’s a witty plot, a bungled burglary to a botched hostage situation to a missing perp. I laughed out loud at moments. Even if you have never been in a hostage situation, the characters were so well crafted that their personalities came shining right through the story. The characters and their aspects were quite enthralling at times, you really wanted to try to figure it all out. At one point I thought I had too. I was totally wrong though. I didn’t expect the outcome of it all either. Seriously, I’m floored. Maybe people won’t see cops in such a bad light, but it is only a book after all…
My first time reading this authors’ works and it definitely won’t be the last. He is brilliant! LIterary lovers will thoroughly enjoy this one!
3.5/5