Anxious People

 By Fredrik Backman

Adult Fiction    

Reviewed by Heidi from the Winkler Branch

Trigger Warning: This book contains stories of suicide.

    Anxious People is a book about a bank robbery, a bridge, an apartment viewing and a group of unlikely people trying to understand themselves and their loved ones.  Fredrik Backman is a Swedish author so this book is set in a small, unnamed Swedish town.  I would describe this book as an onion. Every chapter peels back a layer on the characters, their motivations, their deepest fears, and their anxieties.  It may make you cry, if you're the type to cry while reading books.  It may also make you laugh.  Due to it's multiple layers, every chapter will make you rethink the characters.  As their stories are revealed they become less like idiots and more like people, just trying to do their best to do what's right, even if it makes them look like idiots.

    Anxious People explores the themes of relationships, love, grief, understanding your neighbours, and of course, anxiety.

    This book was also adapted into a Netflix TV show called Anxious People, which can be watched with subtitles as it is in Swedish.

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