I’ll admit, I went into this book not knowing much about the premise, but having absolutely loved Fredrik Backman’s Beartown series. Although I didn’t love Anxious People *quite* as much as those, I definitely wasn’t disappointed by this character-driven novel about people just trying to do their best, and often times failing. ⠀
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It took me to about 1/4 of the way in to REALLY get into it, but once I hit that point, I was hooked. Claws were in. I couldn’t put it down! 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 stars!⠀
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The hype is real about this one, you guys. Be prepared to be thoroughly annoyed by idiots, and ugly cry for them too. It’s a journey, and so worthwhile. ⠀
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Backman once again weaves his story with so many interconnecting pieces. He leads you with tiny crumbs as he reveals each new illuminating facet with timing that will leave you breathless!

Review // Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
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The Facts: Contemporary Fiction, Humor, Books in Translation
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The Feel: Fast-paced, Hilarious, Moving
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The Focus: A group of idiots converge in an apartment during an open house... and find themselves in the middle of a hostage situation. Nothing is as it seems though, as their lives unravel and entwine, changing them all forever.
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Things To Know:
✨ Backman is my favorite. He just is. His writing style is very matter-of-fact, yet every book reads like some sort of whimsical fairy tale that discusses dark, universal topics. Not only was Anxious People an incredible story, but Backman dropped so many impactful words of wisdom. I found myself constantly highlighting entire passages.
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✨ I'm convinced that no one understands the human condition quite like Backman. His characters are always lovable weirdos; flawed heroes who somehow stumble their way through the dark in order to save the day. Anxious People was no different. These characters represented you, me, our family, friends and neighbors; the parts of ourselves we celebrate, and the parts of ourselves we won't even admit to. They were all so real.
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✨ All Backman books seem to be about one important, timely and relatable subject, before the whole story is flipped on its head and proves to be about something even deeper. This story about a group of "idiots" dealing with their own neuroses at a time of high stress (a hostage situation), is actually about the ambiguity of morality, mental illness, our perception of gender roles, and the importance of human connection. It's brilliant.
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✨ I will say, the ending was a little too schmaltzy for me. Backman tends to ramble on about his life philosophies at the ends of his books, and this one was no different. It could've done without the last four or five chapters. Hopefully the final version is edited. Still, I loved it.
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✨ This was, by far, Backman's funniest book. I laughed out loud the entire time.
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Read if you like:
✨ Clue
✨ The Good Place
✨ Laughing until you cry, crying until you laugh
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Backman does it again! A new favorite 💕

Fredrik Backman continues to be one of my favorite modern day authors. He could write a novel about paint drying on a wall and somehow find a way to capture my attention. From the opening page of this novel that reads "this story is about a lot of things, but mostly about idiots," I was sold. From the plot to the character development and everything in between, I could not stop reading. This novel provides humor, suspense, and relevant themes around mental health and how we process emotions in a captivating story. Already cannot wait for what he writes next!

I'm a little biased but Backman can do no wrong! I thought this was a stunning novel, he is hands down one of my favorite authors and I found Anxious People to be incredible!

Perhaps this is a story about a hostage situation, anxious people, idiots, an apartment viewing, a police investigation, a bridge.

Perhaps this is a story about human relationships, which is something Backman writes about masterfully. This one was no exception, I laughed, I cried, I savored every word and page. Another brilliant novel by one of the best!

Although a hugely popular author on bookstagram, this is actually the first book I have read by Fredrik Backman. So thank you so much to Atria Books for my advanced and finished copies! The author is such an amazing writer, I honestly have no words that could express how beautiful every sentence in this book is. I feel like I wanted to write down so many quotes! Anxious People is emotional, funny, and surprising in ways I did not expect. The way that Backman shows the inside of the human connection and how we affect others is absolutely remarkable. He has a unique way of creating realistic characters that readers feel they already know. This book is enjoyable and riveting in ways I cannot describe, and I immediately added all of the author’s previous novels to my TBR.
TW: suicide.

Brenda’s review

Hot Diggity Dang!! Fredrik Backman never ceases to amaze me and here he amazed, by the way, he took hard painful truths, added some comic relief and create a profound, complicated, enlightening entertaining brilliant story. He has an amazing understanding of what makes us humans and a way with words to create one of the most human stories I have read.

This is a story that you might think you know what it is about, but often stories are not what we think they are about. This story is about a lot of things. It might seem like an unlikely story about idiots and anxious people that at times feels a little over the top but is really a story about something different.

It might be a story about a bank robbery gone wrong that ends with an apartment viewing with idiots who are anxious. Maybe the bank robber is just an idiot or maybe things are just really complicated. Maybe this is a story that explores what is under the surface of what we think we see or know about someone. Maybe this is just an entertaining story or maybe under the layers is a profound story.

Backman creates a diverse group of characters with their differences and slowly reveals the differences and motivations of the characters with each chapter. He explores the kind of truths people hide, the true stories about themselves and he shows us with a little compassion and kindness people slowly start to reveal those truths.

Maybe it’s a story about what it’s like to be human in a world full of idiots who just might be anxious people just trying to survive in a loud world. I highly recommend reading to find out for yourselves what you think this story is about.

[4.5/5] Anxious People by Fredrik Backman is one of 2020's most anticipated releases (it’s been ALL over Bookstagram!).

It's a dark comedy that centers around a group of people (and a would-be bank robber) during a hostage situation. Except, the situation isn't quite what you think it is. But one thing's for certain: each character has their own anxieties, secrets, and dreams. Because that's what it is to be human.

I love how Fredrik Backman just gets people. He has this innate understanding of human nature, and knows just how to describe our deepest, most honest thoughts and feelings.

Anxious People was somehow light-hearted and serious all at once. Backman manages to cover difficult subjects like anxiety and depression from an angle that encourages hope and healing.

One of my favorite things about Anxious People was the way it kept subverting your expectations. This story was full of surprises!

My only minor issue was that it felt a bit choppy at times. The chapters would flip back and forth between characters a lot, which kept me engrossed most of the time - but every once in a while, it took me out of the story for a moment. Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed this darkly funny and poignant story! It made me laugh, it made my heart ache, and it made me feel seen.

**Thank you to Atria Books for the review copy!

"...sometimes it's easier to live with your own anxieties if you know that no one else is happy, either."

This story is equal parts hilarious and heart-wrenching. In other words, Fredrik Backman has returned to the style we loved so much in A Man Called Ove. I'll let Backman sum up the plot of his new book in his own words: "This is a story about a bridge, and idiots, and a hostage drama, and an apartment viewing. But it's also a love story. Several, in fact." Once again, total strangers are thrown together in a unique situation and develop human connections. The humor began to wear thin for me about midway through but nevertheless, it was an enjoyable, warm-hearted Backman story.

I received an arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Many thanks for the opportunity.

The thing about this book is that it essentially revolves around a man jumping off a bridge. A suicide. It’s the juxtaposition of the tragedy of suicide and the silly and witty individuals who are accidently held hostage.
When a bank robbery fails miserably, the bank robber mistaking runs into an apartment that is holding an Open House. There are 8 potential buyers within and now this has accidently turned into a hostage situation. After some hours, when the hostages are released from the apartment, a lone police officer storms the home, only to find a blood-stained carpet and no bank robber to be found.

The father/son police team is now interviewing all the hostages trying to figure out who this bank robber is and how did he get away. The police team finds the interview process with the hostages very frustrating as they are full of witty comments and smart-ass deflection answers.

Slowly the layers of secrets reveal themselves and, in the end, no spoilers I swear, ANXIOUS PEOPLE goes from a silly story to something of compassion and empathy. With the dab of what we wouldn’t do for our children, the bigger story is the natural instinct within to protect one another.

At first, I was intrigued by the silliness of ANXIOUS PEOPLE: failed bank robber and accidental hostage taker. But then I was quite annoyed by the hostages and their smart-ass answer to every police question and found it a little off-putting. Once reading further in, the story’s layers were exposed, and I understood and appreciated the comic relief of this distressful topic. Oh, and I totally enjoyed the jaw-dropping reveal at the end.

A big thanks to #NetGalley and @Atriabooks for the advance copy. 3.5 stars.

“One single really bad idea. That’s all it takes.”

On New Year’s Eve, a bank robbery gone wrong turns into a hostage situation at a real estate open house. The police are finally able to convince the robber to let the hostages go. But after all of the hostages have escaped the apartment, there is a single gunshot. The police enter the apartment to find a puddle of blood on the floor … and no body. The apartment is empty!

None of that is a spoiler by the way. In his wry voice, Backman’s narrator speaks directly to the reader in the first few pages and lays out the entire scenario. What follows is a compulsively readable story that unravels how all of this came to be. Along the way, you are transported back and forth in time to meet the characters involved, learning about their pasts and how they are uniquely intertwined. Backman expertly drives the story along its twists and turns, including one twist about halfway through that made me stop in my tracks and want to flip back to the beginning to see how he pulled it off!

This is the second of Backman’s works that I’ve read (I finished Beartown earlier this year), but I am definitely looking forward to catching up on his entire back catalog. If you’ve enjoyed his previous novels, you won’t be disappointed with this one, and if you haven’t, this is a great place to start.

"Anxious People" by Fredrik Backman, translated by Neil Smith, Atria Books, 352 pages, Sept. 8, 2020.

The first sentence of the second paragraph is: "This story is about a lot of things, but mostly idiots."

An open house for an apartment in a small town in Sweden turns dangerous when someone fails in an attempt to rob a bank because it is a cashless bank. As the would-be robber is leaving the bank, a police officer is walking past. The robber runs into an apartment building that has a door open and takes hostages.

The hostages are Zara, a bank director; Roger and Anna-Lena, a retired couple; Julia and Ro, a young couple soon to be parents; and Estelle, who is 87 and who is at the apartment to view it for her daughter. There's also a real estate agent.

After a standoff lasting several hours, the hostages are released. Police enter the apartment, but they can't find the bank robber. There is only one door and the apartment is an open floor plan. There is blood on the floor.

Jim and his son, Jack, are policemen. They interview the hostages who may not be telling the truth. There is also a story about a man standing on a bridge railing 10 years earlier.

This is written in a quirky style. It reminds me of a puzzle where you think you know what the overall picture is, but you don't.

Fredrik Backman is also the author of "Beartown," which I really enjoyed, and several other books. In "Anxious People," the pacing is slow and the plotting is convoluted. This is not his best.

In accordance with FTC guidelines, the advance reader's edition of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

Fredrik Backman is a gifted storyteller, as he is able to capture the nuances of his characters in a way that few authors can. Every quirk or subtle emotion is felt as you read his books. This one was no different in that sense. The human connections made in this story were plentiful and the premise of strangers being stuck together in an apartment while being held hostage was a unique one. In the hands of another author, this may have been a very different book, but Mr. Backman's gifted storytelling gave the reader an enjoyable and emotional story as the strangers started to divulge things to each other.

You know it’s a good read when you end up highlighting and marking up the entire first page because it just speaks to your soul!

I really liked this book on the first read, but I fell in love with it on the second one. I finished it one night and literally woke up the next morning and started it again. I got so much more out of the story and the message on my re-read, so I definitely encourage others to read and re-read too!

Another recommendation to readers: keep a list of characters and how they relate to each other (leave space - more is revealed throughout the novel!). There are lots of players in this story and I struggled to keep everyone straight. Also, some of the reveals are subtle enough to be missed entirely - another great reason to re-read!

While most of the book is written in the third person omniscient perspective, there are blurbs peppered throughout in which the narrator breaks the fourth wall and addresses the reader directly. These blurbs are typically on the periphery of the plot: they don’t drive the story forward, but frame what’s happened or about to happen. They’re often references to the plot generalized to be widely relatable. These bits proved especially helpful on the second read to tie the story together and truly take Backman’s message to heart (though perhaps I’m draft and I’m the only one who needs a re-read to “get it”). (While we’re on the subject of these blurbs, they’re good. Really good. Backman has the rare ability to put into words feelings that we all experience but don’t well articulate. Basically... I felt SEEN.)

Getting to the heart of the story, I read the bank robbery and hostage situation as an allegory to the point that we are all anxious people. Every one of us is hung up on something. It’s really easy for us to make idiotic decisions because of our hang ups, usually in the name of love (for our parents, children, sisters, best friends, fur babies, in laws, etc). Once we realize this, our hang ups seem a little less scary, because we know we’re not alone. It also reminds us to be kind and show compassion, because others are just as hung up and lost and alone as we are, and because it’s surprisingly easy to make an iditioic decision. Backman walks us from normalcy to bank robbery with a series of alarmingly rational mental leaps, proving that the line between harmless, low-key idiotic decisions and massive, life-changing idiotic decisions is an easy one to cross.

This book will make you laugh and maybe cry; it will make you think and puzzle and wonder why; it will make you flip back to page 1 to read it all again because you just need more time to soak it all in. I can’t recommend it enough!!

Thank you NetGalley and pibloshers for an ARC.

Another winner! Backman delights with interesting characters and a bittersweet story. This book more closely resembles Bear Town as it follows multiple POVs. Anxious People deals with some deep topics, but is presented in a way that you feel close with each character.

I highly recommend this book for those looking to meet new characters and learn a bit more from them.

What an absolute delight. This story of stories and mistakes and the ways our lives intersect. You’ll fall for this cast of characters before you realize it. Not everyone can pull off such a large case, but Fredrick Backman has done it so deftly and with the elegance that he brings to all of his books.

An interesting story with some major twists and surprises. A lot of emotions told in a way that lets you feel them. Relationships are complicated and there are many in this book. The ending is powerful. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

In this book, a frustrated bank robber is thwarted when they try to rob a cashless bank. Fleeing, the robber runs into an open apartment which happens to be hosting an open house. When the robber, carrying a weapon, barges into the apartment, the visitors assume they are being held hostage.

During a tense day-long negotiation, we meet the anxious people on the scene, including a pair of father and son police officers, an older couple who has spent their retirement flipping apartments, newlyweds expecting their first child, a man wearing only underwear and a costume rabbit’s head, and others who thought their day would only include a simple apartment viewing.

𝘈𝘯𝘹𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘗𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 presents a multilayered and profound narrative of secrets, insecurities, and unexpected connections. I laughed hard and cried harder, often in the same chapter, and though my heart was ripped to pieces, by the book’s end, Backman had knitted it back together.

Someone asked me what Fredrik Backman’s latest novel, Anxious People, was about, and suddenly I felt like this was a pop quiz that I was about to fail. On its surface, Anxious People is about a bank robbery gone wrong and when it does, the bank robber panics, darts into the building across the street where there’s an apartment viewing. The would-be robber unfortunately then has unwanted hostages.

But Anxious People is so much more, so very much more.

If you’re a new reader to Backman’s books, his writing at first may seem meandering with almost-folksy observations. You may be tempted to skip a paragraph or two, mistakenly believing that these words in these paragraphs don’t mean anything, but they do. Don’t skip.

Pay attention. A random observation might seem random. It’s not.

Despite the fact that I’ve read all of his books, I still had to re-read passages, and I don’t mean in that bad way that means the writer hasn’t done a good job. But in that way that means the reader wasn’t paying attention.

. . . you end up marrying the one you don’t understand. Then you spend the rest of your life trying

Backman has this enviable ability to write all types of characters but doesn’t stop on the surface. This is why one of my favorite characters is Zara who might be considered repugnant because she doesn’t give anyone an inch. She’s a snob. She’s razor sharp. She’s acerbic. She is unrelenting in her judgments. Yet, even early on, before I knew her story, I liked her. Little details were inserted before I learned her story, enough to know that there were layers below the surface.

And this is true of every single character. Not a single one, well, except for perhaps the real estate agent who offers very little, is one-dimensional. But not only that, all are viewed with a compassionate eye. It is this compassionate eye that makes Backman’s writing stand alone in the current writing of which I’m aware. It’s easy to verbally paint a picture of an alcoholic that results in dislike. So much harder to write one that results in caring.

As in real life, no one is as they seem. One of my favorite revelations is about Roger, who comes across as an arrogant man, yet for whom we discover another side resounding in a reaction that feels like a slap.

As readers, we sometimes become complacent with novels that have a store of stock characters. Backman takes these stock characters and turns them on their ear. As a reader and a writer, I loved this journey. It’s one that says: never judge. Ever.

Perhaps not much happens “action-wise” in the novel, but, on the other hand, so much does. We experience the lives of nine or so characters in the space of 350+ pages that fly by much like life.

I definitely experienced so many emotions as I read Anxious People with the strongest being awe at the talent, awareness, compassion of the author.

Frequently I pooh-pooh the idea of going back and re-reading books. So many books, so little time is my motto. But for Backman’s books I will make time, and Anxious People will be at the top of the list.

My recommendation: Read. This. Book.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars!
A cashless bank is robbed unsuccessfully in a small town in Sweden by an amateur bank robber. The bank robber then flees across the road to take shelter in an apartment building. It just so happens that the apartment the bank robber enters is having a viewing that day. The bank robber ends up with a hostage situation they never foresaw, as they are forced to take the apartment’s eight occupants as leverage to escape from police. Anxious People is a dark comedy that explores the lives of these strangers as they have more in common than what they thought.

My first Backman did not disappoint! It was so uniquely written and the characters were so easy to fall in love with. They were extremely real and detailed, making you empathize with their struggles. I loved learning about their relationships and their dreams. There was a theme of recognizing how one’s actions can impact other people for a long time which I really enjoyed. Backman masterfully connected mental health to his characters and weaved it in and out of the story as he discusses anxiety, depression and suicide. I adored this very relatable story about human beings and our dependence on each other for love and acceptance.

HJ Top Pick!

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman: Occasionally in life, a book will fall in your lap, for which you have utterly no expectation nor any background knowledge about, and 10 pages in, you’ll feel like you have entered a profound world of storytelling wherein your heart may stop beating if you can’t devour it all at once.

Anxious People, a mishmash of genres, is sublime in its aesthetic impact, and without doubt, is one of those books. Simple narrative voice that has a non-linear, almost interrupted style, weaves a kind of magic that is akin to Kurt Vonnegut’s observations and Penny Dreadful’s poetry. In more ways than one, this is a true love story: the unconditional love of parents and children, love between partners, love of life and indeed, finding ways to love ourselves. The perceptive commentary regarding the human condition and the almost situational comic-tragedy that unfolds, is just simply clever.

Clever ordinary characters that are ironically extra-ordinary, clever simple dialogue that makes you laugh and cry simultaneously, clever tension management that gently inclines rather than peaks, and a clever summation regarding the unknowing impact we have on each other. Each of the 11 characters are imperceptibly linked to each other in a fabulous take on 6 degrees of separation and without an unfortunate string of circumstances, they would never have become the unlikely group of strangers to have bonded via a hostage drama, resulting from a panicked bank robber escaping through the only doorway that made sense at the time. And so, our bank robber finds themselves waving a pistol around an open viewing of an apartment for sale to the prospective buyers.

Father and son duo, Jim and Jack, both still struggling with the loss of their wife and mother, find themselves at the scene of the bank robber hostage drama trying to take down their criminal, albeit, awkwardly together. And from page to page, the character’s lives begin to unravel and who they think they are and what they mean to each other begins to change shape. From Ro and Jules, our soon to be mothers, to old and wise Estelle, to borderline Asperges Zara, to Nadia, our survivor, to long time couple Roger and Anna-Lena, to Lennart our acting rabbit; each character ends up pivoting in an entirely different direction as a result of the very bizarre circumstance they find themselves in.

Paradoxically, Anxious People will break your heart and somehow manage to fill it within the one breath, and from moment to moment, this becomes an entirely compulsive read that dishes up some significant insight. I highly recommend you leap into this one feet first, because undoubtedly, it’s impact is sure to leave your mind humming and your heart singing for days, if not a life time.