Book Synopsis:
At first sight, Ove is almost certainly the grumpiest man you will ever meet. He thinks himself surrounded by idiots – neighbours who can’t reverse a trailer properly, joggers, shop assistants who talk in code, and the perpetrators of the vicious coup d’etat that ousted him as Chairman of the Residents’ Association. He will persist in making his daily inspection rounds of the local streets.
But isn’t it rare, these days, to find such old-fashioned clarity of belief and deed? Such unswerving conviction about what the world should be, and a lifelong dedication to making it just so?
In the end, you will see, there is something about Ove that is quite irresistible…
My Review:
A Man Called Ove is a beautiful, touching and heartwarming book that I really enjoyed.
It did take me a few chapters to get into the book but I soon found myself absorbed in the story and in Ove’s life. The story is told from Ove’s point of view in the present day with flash backs from important moments from Ove’s past.
I absolutely loved Ove and enjoyed following him throughout the book. His grumpiness annoyed me at first but as I got to understand him more his behaviour became more endearing. Beneath all the grumpiness there lurked a heart of gold as he helped all of his neighbours and became closer to them. His relationship with his cat was hilarious to follow, particularly the thoughts Ove pretends the cat has.
There’s lots going on in this book which made it hard to put down. Some parts of the book were incredibly sad and very heart wrenching, whereas other parts where hilarious and had me laughing out loud, especially some of his interactions with his neighbours. It was great to see how much Ove changes and how different his life is at the end than at the beginning.
The ending was beautiful and perfectly summed up the book completely. I found myself crying but smiling at the same time. I loved that the story seemed to come full circle at the end too.
Huge thanks to Tandem Collective for inviting me onto the read-along and Hodder for my copy of this book. Highly recommended!
About The Author:
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.
Over The Rainbow Blog 
I’m so glad that people are reading this book, and falling in love with Backman’s writing (thanks, in part, to Tom Hanks). I was lucky enough to be an early reader of Ove and I knew then and there that I’d found a new favorite author! I’ve read everything he’s written since, and he has not let me down even a tiny bit!
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