A bank robbery goes wrong and the robber ends up at an apartment open house with a group of would-be hostages. The story goes back and forth between the time spent in the apartment and the subsequent police interviews. Readers must untangle the knots in the plot of this heart-warming caper to figure out what really happened during the open house.

The framework of this book is quite different from other Backman novels, but the depth of the characters remains true. I struggled to get through the first half, as everyone initially comes across as quite unlikeable, but the second half rewards the readers with touching dialogue. Although the characters, at times, seemed dole out a little too much of life’s wisdom, I liked where the story took them. This is one of those stories that you grow to like more and more the longer it sits with you.

Oh Frederik, how do you do it? How do you take a situation that you think you know and turn it into something so much deeper than you can imagine.

Let me be clear, I am in love with Frederik Backman’s writing so, the minute I heard him announce his new book on his social media feeds, I started stalking (for real checking daily) to see if a galley would become available. I was thrilled to get it – thrilled to start it and stalled SO much for the last few chapters because I just didn’t want it to end.

If you have read Backman’s writing before, you will recognize his conversational cadence in this book. It truly feels like he is narrating this story outloud and someone is transcribing it to paper. It is so rare to find an author that can pull off that narrative style and still have amazing character depth. Anxious People, on its surface is about a bank robbery gone wrong that turns into a hostage situation gone wrong which turns into a police investigation gone wrong. It seems like it would have all of the makings of a campy novel destined to become a Netflix movie or something but it is as much about the situation as Beartown was about hockey. Which is to say, not much.

The story is really about people who are stuck together under extraordinary circumstances. None of them would ever interact with one another with all things equal but, throughout the book, their intertwined stories in a small town reveal themselves to show that they are not so far apart as they might think. Somehow, Backman is able to make me laugh out loud, tear up and celebrate the absurd in the world in one lovely little novel. I have a whole Kindle full of quotes that I wanted to include in this review but, since its an unfinished copy, I’m holding myself to just the one

Definitely be looking out for this novel when it is released on September 8th (yeah I know – you have awhile to wait but it is worth it I promise!) Thanks to Netgalley, Atria Books, and Frederik Backman for the copy of this novel in exchange for the honest review.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have start by saying that Fredrick Backman is one of my favourite authors. I always greet new works of his with great anticipation. And this book did not disappoint. In fact, it on,y made me appreciate his writing and story telling even more.

Backman is empathetic and insightful. He can get inside characters and bring them to life in a way that has the audience cheering for (almost) everyone. And loving the interactions between everyone on the story as well.

This is the story of a bank robbery that is not a bank robbery, a hostage taking that is not a hostage taking and a bridge that is central to every thing that is and is not part of this story. It is a tale of how a person always seems to have to try to be good enough but really can’t do it on their own. Or, as the author states on more than one occasion: it is the story of idiots—because ‘it’s so horribly, desperately easy to fail at being grown-up.’

But, more than being about idiots, this book is about love and the essential goodness of human beings. Read it. You will laugh. You will cry. You won’t want it to end. But when it does end, you will want to think about how you can also be a good person and help others be the best they can be also. Because, in the end, that is what really matters. And that is what Backman has the ability to bring out. I hope his next book will come out really, really soon!

PS: make sure you have tissues. You will likely need them!

I purposefully parcelled this book out over several days so that I could savour the writing, think about the characters, and enjoy the reading even though I wanted to binge through it. Backman's writing always gives me pause, as he describes or says something so perfectly that I wish I had written the words.

As in other Backman books there are a lot of characters that intertwine in amazing ways by the end of the story. I found myself getting to a point and realizing that I had made assumptions about things, yet when i went back to check what had led me astray I found that the clever use of language, combined with my own biases were all that was there. AS with other Backman books I smiled, laughed, teared up, and was sad when it was finished.

This is a book about being human. About the inner insecurities we all have about our worthiness. About kindness and community. How strangers can sometimes see us better. About kindness not necessarily requiring a great deal of effort to make a great deal of impact on the receiver.

This is a different translator than previous books so initially it read differently for me, not as lyrical as I had found other writings by Backman, by the mid-point of the book I no longer noticed any difference.

"We give those we love nicknames because love requires a word that belongs to us alone."

"Jim held on to the handrail to stop himself collapsing as his heart broke. Empathy is like vertigo."

"The worst thing a divorce does to a person isn't that it makes all the time you devoted to the relationship feel wasted, but that it steals all the plans you had for the future."

"The people who come to her were the ones who were in so much pain that it felt like they were standing on a railing with one foot over the edge, and she sat in her chair opposite them with eyes that said: "I've been here before. I know a better way down."

"Because that was a parent's job: to provide shoulders. Shoulders for your children to sit on when they're little so they can see the world, then stand on when they get older so they can reach the clouds, and sometimes lean against whenever they stumble and feel unsure."

"He's always felt that the hardest thing about death is the grammar."

"We save those we can. We do our best. Then we try to find a way to convince ourselves that that will just have to ....be enough. So we can live with our failures without drowning."

'Addicts are addicted to their drugs, and their families are addicted to hope."

"Because her parents had taught her during their flight through the mountains that humor is the soul's last line of defence, and as long as we're laughing we're alive, so bad puns and fart jokes were their way of expressing their defiance against despair."

Thank you to Atria Books for allowing me to read an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Anxious People
A Novel
by Fredrik Backman
Atria Books
General Fiction (Adult) | Literary Fiction
Pub Date 08 Sep 2020 | Archive Date 01 Jan 2021

An absolute gem of a book. Loved it! Thanks to Net Galley and Atria Books for the ARC. As a librarian, I like to read all the good books before our patrons so I can give a good recommendation or not.
5 star

At a time when so many are social distancing, Backman gathers close a delightful cast of characters. The banter is natural and the twist telling. A feel good read punctuated with insightful truths.

I find it unusual to find literary fiction that is humorous. This book was that and much more. I would like to re-read it soon because I feel that a second or even a third reading there would be even more things to gleam from it. I love how the author turns everything upside down. Can’t wait to read more of his books.

Fredrik Backman's writing is lyrical, whimsical, and heartwarming. It feels like hanging out with a very witty and observant friend who has the language to describe everything you are witnessing perfectly and humorously.

This book got me in the feels.

I could tell you that this book is a closed room mystery about a bank robbery gone wrong or that it is about "idiots" or that it is about human spirit and human frailty but none of those pieces would come close to describing the impact that the sum of the parts have on the whole of the reader's soul.

Poignant, hilarious, redemptive...5 brilliant stars.

Thank you to Fredrik Backman, Atria and Netgalley for giving me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve read all of Backman’s novels and his latest book keeps up with the stride of his previous work! Backman has such an eloquent writing style bringing up important themes such as empathy, community, feeling ‘enough’, and mental health, in a way that resonates with you and really makes you think about them even after you’re done with the book. Honestly, it took me a while to figure how I wanted to rate Anxious People. At first, it took me a while to get into the book. There were some instances where I felt the author was rambling a bit and deriving from the story, however, everything ended up making sense at the end. I highly recommend picking up Anxious People. Be forewarned that I took my time reading Anxious People as you need to be in a certain headspace to read this one.

I wasn’t a huge fan of A Man Called Ove when everyone else adored it, so I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one. I totally loved it! Think Bel Canto meets Elinor Lipman style humor. What a delight!

I love Fredrik Backman! His books touch me like no others. Anxious People is funny, clever and bought me to tears at the end. It starts silly and will make you laugh, until you realize that there is so much more to the story. Backman has a true understanding of how hard it is to be alive, but also how beautiful life can be.

I love this author and this book so very much! I was in love with A Man Called Ove a few years ago, and could not stop talking about it. This is right in that same vein. Quirky characters and unconventional situations merge to tug at your heart (sobbing at the end) and renew your faith in humans (which in itself is quite a feat these days!). A first-time bank robber attempts to rob a bank (that ends up being cashless), with a fake gun...then, when the cops are called, escapes to an apartment building across the street where a real estate open house is being held...thereby taking all inside as hostages. Nothing more needs said, but how this mess gets worked out is a delightful ride. This is a highly recommended read, and I am sure I will be gifting it to others once published.. Thank you NetGalley and publishers for providing a digital ARC for review.

Loved this book! I had forgotten how funny, yet poignant Fredrik Backman's books are. Great character development too. Run to get this book!

"A bank robbery. A hostage drama. A stairwell full of police officers on their way to storm an apartment.

This, for instance, might not actually be the story of a bank robbery, or an apartment viewing, or a hostage drama. Perhaps it isn’t even a story about idiots. ••• Perhaps this is a story about a bridge."

i always look forward to anything that fredrik blackman writes, and anxious people does not disappoint it is a book about idiots and i fell in love.

A sweet story of compassion and benevolence. The style starts in a tongue-in-cheek, paternalistic manner and transitions to a kindness-conquers-all happy finish. It’s a bit of a fairy tale — both in terms of the happy ending and the oversimplified set of troubles with which the story begins — but it is uplifting and poignant and brought me to tears several times with the beauty of specific human moments.

The (self-stated absolutely ridiculous) story is about a bank robber. Sort of. Said robber only asks for 6,500 kroner but makes the mistake of going to a cashless bank … and somehow escapes into an apartment viewing, inadvertently taking hostages. Lots of things tie together in a twisted but essential way as we get to know all the characters, how they evolved into the state they are in, and how they will continue to evolve (more sanely) in the aftermath.

Some very interesting twists of gender expectations which I both enjoyed and found fascinating.

I found the initial chapters depressing and was irritated with the avuncular (and often second person) style. A very clear ultra-liberal message — everybody makes mistakes, it’s OK to blame society (and especially the money-grubbing banks) for everything that is wrong in your life, and if everyone is simply kind to each other, all our problems will be solved. There is one character — an economist / senior bank official — who spouts a defense of capitalism and responsibility, but it turns out that she is suffering from a trauma that has led her to withdraw into that opinion, and she “sees the light” by the end of the book. I find that kind of annoying and oversimplified, but I admit to really enjoying the book!

To begin, just a quick word of thanks to Atria Books/Simon & Schuster, as well as netgalley.com for an advanced copy of this novel in return for an honest review of the novel.

I'll start by saying that I am a fan of Fredrik Backman's novels. I am not sure how I stumbled upon him - usually, Amazon will provide me an author or a novel of "something I might be interested in". I had first read "My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry", and really enjoyed it. I moved on to "A Man Called Ove" - which is probably one of the best novels I have read in a while. Finally, I read "Britt-Marie Was Here", and enjoyed that novel, too. So - when I saw that Backman has a new book out - "Anxious People" - I was more than excited to get an opportunity to read this one.

Unfortunately, "Anxious People" wasn't great, in my opinion. It wasn't bad, but I was mildly disappointed in the novel. The story revolves around 8 strangers, who are being held hostage at an apartment viewing by an inept bank robber. The story also includes a father and son duo, who are the local police officers who are at this hostage scene. In the few Backman novels I have read, I enjoy his use of comedy peppered throughout the story - especially when the story includes some dark topics, such as suicide, death of a loved one, and divorce. Backman is able to tug on your emotions - making you feel both good and sad at the characters of the novel.

My biggest issue with "Anxious People" is that, for whatever reason, this story did not do it for me. I never really got into the characters - their stories, their issues, their flaws - in a way that I have been able to in the previous Backman novels I read. To be honest, I almost gave up on this one around the midway point of the novel. The story was just too silly, especially at the start of the novel. The police interviews - where the hostages were rude to the police officers; the real estate agent's goofiness throughout the book; and the interactions between the father-son police officers just seemed off to me - it was just not interesting. The novel did pick up throughout the second half, and the interactions between the hostages, the bank robber, and the police officers, were better - more like what I remember from the Backman books I enjoyed.

I still have other Backman books to read, and I look forward to reading them. He is a good author, and will get your emotions going with some well-written stories, but to me, "Anxious People" really didn't do it for me.

3.5 stars. It was really difficult to get into and the first half of the book was extremely slow. As usual, though, Backman has so many beautiful passages and observations on life that I laughed out loud and shed a tear many times throughout the book.

Oh my goodness, I LOVED this book so very much. As always, Fredrik Backman makes us love the characters, feel like we know the characters and root for every single one of them. Anxious People is fantastic...highly recommend.
Thank you to netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for this amazing ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Six stars
Obviously Fredrik Backman is a literary genius and this book proves it. I couldn't put it down and read it in a day. The development of the characters creates a sense of camaraderie between the reader and the characters.
"People are idiots" but most of the time we are just doing the best we can at the moment and we all need a purpose in life.
This is the story of two police officers, a bank robber unable to rob a bank because it was cashless, who in turn runs across the street and takes a group of people hostage that are viewing an available apartment. When the hostages are released, the police officers rush into the apartment only to find blood on the floor and the bank robber missing. Where did the bank robber go?
In addition to the mystery of the missing bank robber, each character is dealing with their own insecurities and anxieties. Roger's ego is hurt, Ana-Lena feels guilty, Julie is angry, Ro is scared, Zara is in pain, Lennart is stuck, Estelle is lonely and the bank robber is remorseful. Jack is frustrated and Jim is mourning. While being held hostage, each person is "wrestling with their own story." The people in the apartment seem a bit high strung in the beginning, but the longer they are together, the more mellow and accepting they become. All the people in the apartment need to forgive someone and the bank robber needs their forgiveness.
Backman takes each character and shows how an incident in one person's life may affect another's in a sort of "fortunately/unfortunately" style.
The story begins with the robbery and works backward between Jim and Jack attempting the interview the hostages with some laugh- out- loud moments, the actual hostage situation and a bit of the back story of characters examining their insecurities.
In the end, Backman has masterfully interwoven all the characters' lives and leaves the reader rooting for the bank robber.

So, for me, this wasn't one of Backman's stronger offerings. All the elements were there, but the way they were put together (particularly in the beginning, when Backman kept jumping around) didn't enable them to be elevated in the way they could've been. What this really needed was a stronger anchoring element - or central character. And you would think that the set up would be anchoring enough - and, at points, it is - but because there is so much flitting between characters, and because Backman has a lot to say here, I do believe it would've helped if there had been a designated main character for everyone else to orbit around. That's what makes all the zany sweetness in A Man Called Ove work so well: everyone's drama cycles around Ove's.

Now, all this said, it is still a Backman book, which means that even with its' faults it's still pretty damn entertaining and affecting. Is there a smidge too much ending fatigue and grandstanding? Well, yeah, but there are a lot of really great, uplifting little moments too - and, rather unexpectedly, there's a pretty great little locked room mystery too. If you've read Backman before I definitely think you'll find something to enjoy here. (And if you haven't...maybe try A Man Called Ove or Beartown first.)