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Anxious People: The No. 1 New York Times bestseller, now a Netflix TV Series by [Fredrik Backman]

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Fredrik Backman

Anxious People: The No. 1 New York Times bestseller, now a Netflix TV Series Kindle Edition

by Fredrik Backman (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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The funny, touching and unpredictable No. 1 New York Times bestseller, now a major Netflix TV series

'A brilliant and comforting read' MATT HAIG
'Funny, compassionate and wise. An absolute joy' A.J. PEARCE
'A surefooted insight into the absurdity, beauty and ache of life' GUARDIAN
'I laughed, I sobbed, I recommended it to literally everyone I know' BUZZFEED
'Captures the messy essence of being human' WASHINGTON POST

From the 15 million copy internationally bestselling author of A Man Called Ove
_______

It's New Year's Eve and House Tricks estate agents are hosting an open viewing in an up-market apartment when an incompetent bank robber rushes in and politely takes everyone hostage.

For Anna-Lena and Roger, busy buying-up apartments to fill the hole in their marriage, it's something else to talk about.

For Julia and Ro, panicky parents-to-be, it's yet another worry.

Lonely bank manager Zara only came here for the view.

While 87-year-old grandmother Estelle seems rather pleased by the company . . .

As the police gather outside, the anxious strangers huddled within try to make the best of a very sticky situation - but could it be that they have a whole lot more in common than meets the eye?
_______

Readers are loving Anxious People!

'Backman never disappoints . . . heartwarming and multi layered' 5***** READER REVIEW

'As always Backman manages to delight . . . a really satisfying ending that makes you feel better about the world' 5***** READER REVIEW

'A wonderfully unusual tale, told with flair and finesse that is so wonderful it is sure to cure everything that ails you. Don't miss out on this beautiful book' 5***** READER REVIEW

'This novel is about humanity at its most raw and at its most wonderful and I LOVED it!' 5***** READER REVIEW

Print length

400 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin
Publication date

20 Aug. 2020
File size

4568 KB
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From the Publisher

Product description

Review

A brilliant and comforting read -- Matt Haig

I laughed, I sobbed, I recommended it to literally everyone I know ― Buzzfeed

Funny, compassionate and wise . . . an absolute joy -- AJ Pearce, bestselling author of Dear Mrs Bird

Captures the messy essence of being human. It's clever and affecting, as likely to make you laugh out loud as it is to make you cry ― Washington Post

I loved this book. Funny, sad, clever, insightful, surprising and hopeful. Brilliant in every way -- Sarah Morgan, bestselling author of One Summer in Paris

A satisfying remedy for pandemic anxiety . . . It's laugh-out-loud funny and will help restore your faith in humanity ― Independent Daily Edition

Witty, observant, and unpredictable . . . darkly humorous ― Nouse

'19 New Books to Read in September' ― E! Online

Another smash hit . . . With Backman's stunning characters combined with a closed-room mystery, this has all of the ingredients for a novel all your friends will be talking about -- Shane Mullen ― Ebene Magazine

A surprisingly sweet tale. It's the perfect balance of heartwarming and heart-wrenching, and Fredrik Backman [...] has a way of simply yet elegantly describing relationships. We can all be idiots, but we're still all human beings worthy of connection and love ― National Public Radio Book Concierge

Endearing . . . A surefooted insight into the absurdity, beauty and ache of life ― Guardian

A master of writing delightful, insightful, soulful, character-driven narratives. He writes so humorously and poignantly about life, marriage, parenthood, love and death ― USA Today

A quirky, big-hearted novel. Wry, wise, and often laugh-out-loud funny, it's a wholly original story that delivers pure pleasure ― People

An endlessly entertaining mood booster ― Real Simple

This book examines how a shared event can change the course of many lives at once. And if you like strongly drawn characters and a mix of humor and heartbreak, this one's for you ― The Skimm

A witty, lighthearted romp...Backman charms ― Publishers Weekly

A deeply funny and warm examination of how individual experiences can bring a random group of people together. Backman reveals each character's many imperfections with tremendous empathy, reminding us that people are always more than the sum of their flaws ― BookPage

A tight-knit, surprise-filled narrative. The brisk, absorbing action prompts meditation on marriage, parenting, responsibility, and global economic pressures. Comedy, drama, mystery, and social study, this novel is undefinable except for the sheer reading pleasure it delivers. Highly recommended ― Library Journal (starred review)

Backman's latest novel focuses on how a shared event can change the course of multiple people's lives even in times of deep and ongoing anxiousness. A story with both comedy and heartbreak sure to please Backman fans ― Kirkus Reviews

Brilliant, funny, and compassionate . . . wonderfully charming ― Purple Revolver

A compassionate story of imperfect people doing the best they can to navigate life in an imperfect world ― The Leader Wrexham

This book promises laughs, heartwarming drama, and a whole lot of madness, but at the heart of it is something we can all relate to: being human ― InYourArea

Praise for Fredrik Backman ― -

I utterly believed in the residents of Beartown, and felt ripped apart by the events in the book -- Jojo Moyes ― bestselling author of Me Before You

Surrounded by impenetrable forests, [Beartown] recreates the stifling atmosphere of a dying community. This is a mature, compassionate novel ― The Sunday Times --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From the Back Cover

The funny, touching and unpredictable new novel from the 13 million copy internationally bestselling author of A Man Called Ove. New Year's Eve and House Tricks estate agents are hosting an open viewing in an up-market apartment when an incompetent bank robber rushes in and politely takes everyone hostage. For Ana-Lena and Roger, busy buying-up apartments to fill the hole in their marriage, it's something else to talk about. For Julia and Ro, panicky parents-to-be, it's yet another worry. Lonely bank manager Zara only came here for the view. While 87-year-old grandmother Estelle seems rather pleased by the company. As the police gather outside, the anxious strangers huddled within try to make the best of a very sticky situation - but could it be that they have a whole lot more in common than meets the eye? --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1 1
A bank robbery. A hostage drama. A stairwell full of police officers on their way to storm an apartment. It was easy to get to this point, much easier than you might think. All it took was one single really bad idea.

This story is about a lot of things, but mostly about idiots. So it needs saying from the outset that it's always very easy to declare that other people are idiots, but only if you forget how idiotically difficult being human is. Especially if you have other people you're trying to be a reasonably good human being for.

Because there's such an unbelievable amount that we're all supposed to be able to cope with these days. You're supposed to have a job, and somewhere to live, and a family, and you're supposed to pay taxes and have clean underwear and remember the password to your damn Wi-Fi. Some of us never manage to get the chaos under control, so our lives simply carry on, the world spinning through space at two million miles an hour while we bounce about on its surface like so many lost socks. Our hearts are bars of soap that we keep losing hold of; the moment we relax, they drift off and fall in love and get broken, all in the wink of an eye. We're not in control. So we learn to pretend, all the time, about our jobs and our marriages and our children and everything else. We pretend we're normal, that we're reasonably well educated, that we understand 'amortization levels' and 'inflation rates.' That we know how sex works. In truth, we know as much about sex as we do about USB leads, and it always takes us four tries to get those little buggers in. (Wrong way round, wrong way round, wrong way round, there! In!) We pretend to be good parents when all we really do is provide our kids with food and clothing and tell them off when they put chewing gum they find on the ground in their mouths. We tried keeping tropical fish once and they all died. And we really don't know more about children than tropical fish, so the responsibility frightens the life out of us each morning. We don't have a plan, we just do our best to get through the day, because there'll be another one coming along tomorrow.

Sometimes it hurts, it really hurts, for no other reason than the fact that our skin doesn't feel like it's ours. Sometimes we panic, because the bills need paying and we have to be grown-up and we don't know how, because it's so horribly, desperately easy to fail at being grown-up.

Because everyone loves someone, and anyone who loves someone has had those desperate nights where we lie awake trying to figure out how we can afford to carry on being human beings. Sometimes that makes us do things that seem ridiculous in hindsight, but which felt like the only way out at the time.

One single really bad idea. That's all it takes.

One morning, for instance, a thirty-nine-year-old resident of a not particularly large or noteworthy town left home clutching a pistol, and that was'in hindsight'a really stupid idea. Because this is a story about a hostage drama, but that wasn't the intention. That is to say, it was the intention that it should be a story, but it wasn't the intention that it should be about a hostage drama. It was supposed to be about a bank robbery. But everything got a bit messed up, because sometimes that happens with bank robberies. So the thirty-nine-year-old bank robber fled, but with no escape plan, and the thing about escape plans is just like what the bank robber's mom always said years ago, when the bank robber forgot the ice cubes and slices of lemon in the kitchen and had to run back: 'If your head isn't up to the job, your legs better be!' (It should be noted that when she died, the bank robber's mom 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.) So after the bank robbery that wasn't actually a bank robbery, the police showed up, of course, so the bank robber got scared and ran out, across the street and into the first door that presented itself. It's probably a bit harsh to label the bank robber an idiot simply because of that, but' well, it certainly wasn't an act of genius. Because the door led to a stairwell with no other exits, which meant the bank robber's only option was to run up the stairs.

It should be noted that this particular bank robber had the same level of fitness as the average thirty-nine-year-old. Not one of those big-city thirty-nine-year-olds who deal with their midlife crisis by buying ridiculously expensive cycling shorts and swimming caps because they have a black hole in their soul that devours Instagram pictures, more the sort of thirty-nine-year-old whose daily consumption of cheese and carbohydrates was more likely to be classified medically as a cry for help rather than a diet. So by the time the bank robber reached the top floor, all sorts of glands had opened up, causing breathing that sounded like something you usually associate with the sort of secret societies that demand a password through a hatch in the door before they let you in. By this point, any chance of evading the police had dwindled to pretty much nonexistent.

But by chance the robber turned and saw that the door to one of the apartments in the building was open, because that particular apartment happened to be up for sale and was full of prospective buyers looking around. So the bank robber stumbled in, panting and sweaty, holding the pistol in the air, and that was how this story ended up becoming a hostage drama.

And then things went the way they did: the police surrounded the building, reporters showed up, the story made it onto the television news. The whole thing went on for several hours, until the bank robber had to give up. There was no other choice. So all eight people who had been held hostage, seven prospective buyers and one real estate agent, were released. A couple of minutes later the police stormed the apartment. But by then it was empty.

No one knew where the bank robber had gone.

That's really all you need to know at this point. Now the story can begin.
--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

About the Author

Number 1 New York Times bestseller FREDRIK BACKMAN made his literary debut in 2012 with the global sensation A Man Called Ove - now in development as a major motion picture starring Tom Hanks. Wickedly funny, touching and wise, Fredrik Backman's novels are odysseys of the ordinary man and woman, and stunningly moving tales of everyday courage. Up to now, Fredrik Backman has written six highly acclaimed novels, two heartfelt novellas about life and love, and one non-fiction book about parenthood. His books have sold more than 15 million copies in 46 languages and the Swedish film adaption of A Man Called Ove was nominated for two Academy Awards. He lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with his wife and two children. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B081RGCWTS
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin (20 Aug. 2020)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 4568 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 400 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 589 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 13 in Scandinavian Crime
- 18 in Humourous Literary Fiction
- 36 in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Literary Fiction

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47,058 ratings

About the author

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Fredrik Backman

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Fredrik Backman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, Britt-Marie Was Here, Beartown, Us Against You, and two novellas, And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer and The Deal of a Lifetime, as well as one work of nonfiction, Things My Son Needs to Know About the World. His books are published in more than forty countries. His next novel, Anxious People, will be published in September 2020. He lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with his wife and two children. Connect with him on Facebook and Twitter @BackmanLand or on Instagram @Backmansk.

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Customer reviews

5 star		52%
4 star		30%
3 star		13%
2 star		4%
1 star		2%

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Terry Mooney

If you only read one book read this one

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 February 2021

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I have read thousands of books and every one by this author. This is the most wonderfuI, amazing, beautiful....just the most. This is not Terry the reviews are in his name because he bought me a Kindle for my birthday ten years ago and left it in his account telling me to buy what I wanted. Thank you Terry. Now read this book. I'll lend you my Kindle. Carole

96 people found this helpful

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Rosamund S.

Mixed feelings

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 August 2020

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I often love reading the work of Frederick Backman, first encountering his world in Grandmother sends her regards. The best thing about this book is the plot, which I think is quite a new venture for Backman but still manages to convey his usual messages and style. Kudos to that! The theme of mental illness and the consequences of that are also quite powerfully conveyed. However, despite some of the heart-rending and heart-warming moments and issues that really hit home for me, I have a couple of issues with this book. Firstly, the storylines and ultimate ending or endings are quite predictable, if you have read enough book by this author. It’s always about dysfunctional family, love and always always death and grief. I wish he would consider writing a book without any mention of death for once in the future, so it wouldn’t get so tedious over the time. Secondly, it gets so bogged down with all the political and ‘diversity’ statement to the point of being an overkill. Sure the author is most probably a fierce advocate for these people, but a story shouldn’t always be about what the author thinks, but how it might reflect the society and what other people actually think. Maybe for once he could leave immigration and stuff like that alone. Or maybe it’s just a Swedish thing, I don’t know. It just feels like everything he says, he is trying to make some sort of statement somehow, and regardless of my views on those issues, I find them to interfere too much with the story. Overall, I would still say that this book, like many of Backman’s books, is worth a read.

59 people found this helpful

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Rebecca

Strong Story with Message ﹗

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 September 2021

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This was such a gorgeously written story, with such a strong and important message. I'm really struggling to come up with the right words for this review. I don't think this book will ever leave me.

The main things I got from this story was love can make you do idiotic things, and you can never surely know what's happening in someone's life and how they really feel unless you talk to one another.

All of the characters here bonded over their life stories, choices, differences and similarities and although the situation was strange and stressful, the kindness in these strangers was absolute. I really cant praise this book enough. I think I'm going to have a long lasting book hangover with this one!

19 people found this helpful

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C. Murphy

Was there a point? if there was I missed it

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 November 2021

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I found this book a chore and can't wait to finish it. I've never written a review of a book I am half way through but I fear this might be one I DNF - the only one ever. The book felt the way I feel about doing cross stitch - going back and forth over the same things over and over again with tiny increments of barely perceptible progress at some point. I hated all the characters - that was probably intended. I found all of their 'human condition' issues tedious and uninteresting. I would not call most of them anxious people; sociopathic maybe, borderline personality disorders and psychotics but not just a bunch of jolly, common and garden anxious folks 'and here's why'. The policemen were slapstick - their interviews felt like the author's fantasy of what writing a comic strip would be like. Completely unrealistic - their interviewees were all rude in exactly the same way. All exactly the same passive aggressive, dismissive and sarcastic. What are the odds? the police suspected one or more of them helped (or was) the perpetrator so they would all be suspects and treated as such. I have no idea what kind of story the author intended this book to be or what point he was making. I've read a few of his books and they were pretty good, tight story lines and well written. This one has childish dialogue and endless repetition - I am not sure I have enough life left to invest in finishing it.

16 people found this helpful

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Avid Reader

Like cutting through an onion

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 February 2021

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A good book is one where the plot development is not obvious from the outset. This book was like going through layers of an onion - there's just more and more the deeper you go. The author manages to weave together humour and absurdity with some pretty sobering insights about life and adulthood. Each character is not the person you thought he was, and it is delightful to see how their motivations are revealed as their personalities develop. I wonder how much Swedish culture attributes to this delightful cast, but one thing for sure, I will never look at rabbit costumes the same way again :)

20 people found this helpful

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Mads

An absolute joy to read.......

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 December 2020

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Absolutely brilliant! This is Backman at his best.

Usually in a review I say a little about the characters and the plot but with this one I cant - because whatever I said would be a spoiler. Reading this book I felt I was on a switchback staircase with multiple turns. The way the story is woven is clever - in spite of the twists I never lost my way, and I ran through a gamut of emotions - sadness, hope, and joy.

There are a few books where 5 stars just isn't enough. This is one of them.

16 people found this helpful

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JAW

Brilliant - Backman does it again

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 September 2020

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Fredrik Backman doesn't just write a book - he tells a story and Anxious People is another masterpiece. His insight into humanity and the human psyche is incredible and he will have you laughing and feeling sad in equal measure whilst reading this book. Thoroughly entertaining - it will not disappoint.

12 people found this helpful

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Hayley

Very good

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 December 2020

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This was a very good read, a strange, meandering book that at times made me wonder where on earth it was going. However I have read all of this authors books and when I thought about it they are all like this. He writes beautifully about human connection and the vulnerabilities we all face at one time or another and he weaves a story around these themes that at times resonates so poignantly and usually ends up with me going from laughter to tears and back again.

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Anxious People: The No. 1 New York Times bestseller, now a Netflix TV Series Kindle Edition

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From the Back Cover

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

About the Author

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About the author

Fredrik Backman

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