Fredrik Backman is a Swedish novelist, blogger, and columnist born on June 2, 1981. His works have been number one best-sellers in Sweden. Backman’s books have sold in over twenty-five languages. Backman was born and raised in Helsingborg, Scania, Sweden. He has written for the Swedish daily Helsingborgs Dagblad as well as Moore Magazine. Backman made his debut in 2012 with A Man Called Ove. His debut novel stayed on the best-seller list for 42 weeks after it was translated into English. After the popularity of his first novel, Atria purchased the rights to translate his other novels into English.
He was attracted to writing because it was the most efficient method of interacting. Backman loved the fact that he could look through his work and make changes before it was sent.
Backman writes about individuals who deal with the consequences of their rash decisions. He is fascinated with the lives of ordinary people.
His second book, Things My Son Needs to Know About the World was inspired by his own experiences. He dubbed it a “dysfunctional parenting guide” and made an agreement with his publisher for it. He said that, if they wanted A man called Ove, they had to publish that one first.
In 2009, Fredrik Backman married Neda Shafti Backman. Now, he lives together with her and their two kids.
Fredrik Backman Books in order
Standalone Novel
- The Best Mistake: A Selection from Love Comes Along (2014)
- My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry (2015)
- A Man Called Ove (2015)
- And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer (2016)
- And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer (2016)
- Britt-Marie Was Here (2017)
- Beartown (2017)
- The Deal of a Lifetime (2017)
- Things My Son Needs to Know About the World (2019)
- Anxious People (2021)
Similar authors
- Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine follows a social misfit with a traumatic past. She falls in love with a singer and believes she is destined to be with him.
- The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave, is about a woman searching for the truth. She needs to figure out her husband’s disappearance at any cost.
- Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Malibu Rising features four renowned siblings. To commemorate the end of the summer, they organize an amazing party that will change their lives forever.
See also: Mary Alice Monroe Books in Order.
Most recommended books
- A Man Called Ove (4.36 Goodreads score)
- Us Against You (Beartown, #2) (4.35 Goodreads score)
- And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer (4.32 Goodreads score)
- Beartown (Beartown, #1) (4.27 Goodreads score)
- Anxious People (4.20 Goodreads score)
Awards
- Ozon Book Awards (Best Fiction) Russia for A Man Called Ove.
- LiveLib Readers’ Choice Awards for Most Anticipated Novel.
- The Piraten Award in Sweden.
- Vision’s Author of the Year Award Sweden.
Upcoming releases
Fredrik Backman Returns with The Winners, the third novel in the Beartown series. The book is already published in Swedish and will be published in English in October 2022.
Movies based on the novels
Two of his novels were made into movies. The first one is A Man Called Ove and the second one is Britt Marie. His most popular series, Beartown, was adapted into a Tv show by HBO released in 2020.
Book summaries
The Best Mistake: A Selection from Love Comes Along (2014)
Ex-model Zoe Fleming is now a hardworking single mom – and she wouldn’t have it any other way. Though she would like a tenant to share household expenses. What she gets is confirmed bachelor J. Cooper McKinnon. Coop quickly befriends her son and in no time has the reluctant Zoe charmed, too. But she has zero room in her life for a man! Either this was a recipe for disaster or the best mistake she’s ever made.
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry (2015)
Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy—as in standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-strangers crazy. She is also Elsa’s best, and only, friend. At night Elsa takes refuge in her grandmother’s stories, in the Land-of-Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas, where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal.When Elsa’s grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa’s greatest adventure begins. Her grandmother’s instructions lead her to an apartment building full of drunks, monsters, attack dogs, and old crones but also to the truth about fairy tales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other.
A Man Called Ove (2015)
Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon—the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him “the bitter neighbor from hell.”But must Ove be bitter just because he doesn’t walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time? Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents’ association to their very foundations.
And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer (2016)
“Isn’t that the best of all life’s ages, an old man thinks as he looks at his grandchild, when a boy is just big enough to know how the world works but still young enough to refuse to accept it?”Grandpa and Noah are sitting on a bench in a square that keeps getting smaller every day. The square is strange but also familiar, full of the odds and ends that have made up their lives: Grandpa’s work desk, the stuffed dragon that Grandpa once gave to Noah, the sweet-smelling hyacinths that Grandma loved to grow in her garden.As they wait together on the bench, they tell jokes and discuss their shared love of mathematics. Grandpa recalls what it was like to fall in love with his wife, what it was like to lose her. She’s as real to him now as the first day he met her, but he dreads the day when he won’t remember her.Sometimes Grandpa sits on the bench next to Ted, Noah’s father – Ted who never liked math, prefers writing and playing guitar, and has waited his entire life for his father to have time for him, to accept him. But in their love of Noah, they have found a common bond.Grandpa, Grandma, Ted, and Noah all meet here, in this peculiar space that is growing dimmer and more confusing all the time. And here is where they will learn to say good-bye, the scent of hyacinths in the air, nothing to fear.
And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer (2016)
Grandpa and Noah are sitting on a bench in a square that keeps getting smaller every day. The square is strange but also familiar, full of the odds and ends that have made up their lives: Grandpa’s work desk, the stuffed dragon that Grandpa once gave to Noah, the sweet-smelling hyacinths that Grandma loved to grow in her garden.As they wait together on the bench, they tell jokes and discuss their shared love of mathematics. Grandpa recalls what it was like to fall in love with his wife, what it was like to lose her. She’s as real to him now as the first day he met her, but he dreads the day when he won’t remember her.Sometimes Grandpa sits on the bench next to Ted, Noah’s father – Ted who never liked math, prefers writing and playing guitar, and has waited his entire life for his father to have time for him, to accept him. But in their love of Noah, they have found a common bond.Grandpa, Grandma, Ted, and Noah all meet here, in this peculiar space that is growing dimmer and more confusing all the time. And here is where they will learn to say good-bye, the scent of hyacinths in the air, nothing to fear.
Britt-Marie Was Here (2017)
Britt-Marie can’t stand mess. A disorganized cutlery drawer ranks high on her list of unforgivable sins. She is not one to judge others—no matter how ill-mannered, unkempt, or morally suspect they might be. It’s just that sometimes people interpret her helpful suggestions as criticisms, which is certainly not her intention.But hidden inside the socially awkward, fussy busybody is a woman who has more imagination, bigger dreams, and a warmer heart that anyone around her realizes.When Britt-Marie walks out on her cheating husband and has to fend for herself in the miserable backwater town of Borg—of which the kindest thing one can say is that it has a road going through it—she finds work as the caretaker of a soon-to-be demolished recreation center. The fastidious Britt-Marie soon finds herself being drawn into the daily doings of her fellow citizens, an odd assortment of miscreants, drunkards, layabouts. Most alarming of all, she’s given the impossible task of leading the supremely untalented children’s soccer team to victory. In this small town of misfits, can Britt-Marie find a place where she truly belongs?
Beartown (2017)
People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semifinals, and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys. Being responsible for the hopes of an entire town is a heavy burden, and the semifinal match is the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made, and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected.
The Deal of a Lifetime (2017)
It all begins with a father telling a story to his son on Christmas Eve. But this isn’t your typical Christmas story. The father admits to his son that he’s taken a life but he won’t say whose – not yet.One week earlier, in a hospital late at night, the man met a five-year-old girl with cancer. She’s a smart kid – smart enough to know that she won’t beat cancer by drawing with crayons all day, but it seems to make the adults happy, so she keeps doing it.As the man tells his son about this plucky little girl, he slowly reveals more about himself: while he may be a successful businessman, idolized by the media and his peers, he knows he failed as a parent. Overwhelmed by the responsibility of fatherhood, he took the easy way out and left his wife and little boy 20 years ago to pursue professional success. Now he is left wondering if it’s too late to forge a relationship with his son, who seems to be his opposite in every way – prizing happiness over money, surrounded by loving friends in a cozy town where he feels right at home.Face to face with the idea that something is missing, the man is given the unexpected chance to do something selfless that could change the destiny of the little girl in the hospital bed. But before he can make the deal of a lifetime, he needs to find out what his own life has actually been worth in the eyes of his son. And so, he seeks him out and tells him this story….
Things My Son Needs to Know About the World (2019)
As he conveys his profound awe at experiencing all the “firsts” that fill him with wonder and catch him completely unprepared, Fredrik Backman doesn’t shy away from revealing his own false steps and fatherly flaws, tackling issues both great and small, from masculinity and midlife crises to practical jokes and poop. In between the sleep-deprived lows and wonderful highs, Backman takes a step back to share the true story of falling in love with a woman who is his complete opposite, and learning to live a life that revolves around the people you care about unconditionally. Alternating between humorous side notes and longer essays offering his son advice as he grows up and ventures out into the world, Backman relays the big and small lessons in life, including:How to find the team to which you belong Why airports explain everything about religion and warThe reason starting a band is crucial to cultivating and keeping friendshipsHow to beat Monkey Island 3Why, sometimes, a dad might hold on to his son’s hand just a little too tightThis is an irresistible and insightful collection, perfect for new parents and fans of Backman’s “unparalleled understanding of human nature” (Shelf Awareness). As he eloquently reminds us, “You can be whatever you want to be, but that’s nowhere near as important as knowing that you can be exactly who you are.”
Anxious People (2021)
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. 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.Proving once again that Backman is “a master of writing delightful, insightful, soulful, character-driven narratives” (USA TODAY), Anxious People “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” (The Washington Post). This “endlessly entertaining mood-booster” (Real Simple) is proof that the enduring power of friendship, forgiveness, and hope can save us—even in the most anxious of times.
