And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman

Synopsis

From the New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, and Britt-Marie Was Here comes an exquisitely moving portrait of an elderly man’s struggle to hold on to his most precious memories, and his family’s efforts to care for him even as they must find a way to let go.

With all the same charm of his bestselling full-length novels, here Fredrik Backman once again reveals his unrivaled understanding of human nature and deep compassion for people in difficult circumstances. This is a tiny gem with a message you’ll treasure for a lifetime.

I'm kicking off 2023 with a beautiful novella by Fredrik Backman. 'And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer' is super short, but it really packs a big punch in its few pages. 

It tells the story of love, loss, and a lifetime of beautiful memories that you desperately want to hold on to. I think anyone who picks up this story could get something wonderful, heartwarming, and meaningful out of it. 

Due to the subject, it does have an aura of sadness, but it's written in a beautiful way that brings a sense of peace to the heartache. 

I highly recommend this for a rainy weekend afternoon when you want to get in touch with your feelings. I'd recommend most of Backman's work in the same way though. 

5/5 Stars

Memorable Quotes: 

"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. Noah's feet don't touch the ground when his legs dangle over the edge of the bench, but his head reaches all the way to space, because he hasn't been alive long enough to allow anyone to keep his thoughts on Earth. His grandpa is next to him and is incredibly old, of course, so old now that people have given up and no longer nag him to start acting like an adult. So old that it's too late to grow up. It's not so bad either, that age.

“A great brain can never be kept on Earth.”

“It’s a big universe to be angry at but a long life to have company in.” 

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My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman

Synopsis

Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy, standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-men-who-want-to-talk-about-Jesus-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 letters lead her to an apartment building full of drunks, monsters, attack dogs, and totally ordinary old crones, but also to the truth about fairytales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other.

Are you ready to get lost in your feelings? You better be if you’re picking up this book. I cried within the first 30 pages. 

This is the second Fredrik Backman book that I’ve read. My first one was “A Man Called Ove” which made me cry at the end. I’m starting to think I should just be ready to cry whenever I crack open one of his novels. 

I’m cool with that. His writing is beautiful and his characters are quirky. 

That’s basically what this whole novel is about. It’s about being different, embracing those differences, and accepting the differences in others. 

Being different is great. What even is “normal” anyway?

On the surface, ‘My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry’ is a fun and cute novel about a smartass almost-eight-year-old girl whose best, and only, friend is her granny. She loves books and fairy tales and going on journeys with her granny to the Land of Almost-Awake. 

What she doesn’t realize is that The Land of Almost-Awake is a lot closer to home than it may seem. 

When her granny dies, Elsa is thrust into an adventure of delivering letters to all of the people her grandmother wants to apologize to. She learns a lot of life, love, loss, and grief along the way. 

This novel cuts deep. The characters are complex. It will make you feel every emotion while acting as an escape to a far away land. 

‘My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry’ is an absolutely incredible read. 

5/5 Stars

Memorable Quotes: “Not all monsters were monsters in the beginning. Some are monsters born of sorrow.” 

“Not all monsters look like monsters. There are some that carry their monstrosity inside.” 

“It’s strange how quickly the significance of a certain smell can change, depending on what path it decides to take through the brain. It’s strange how close love and fear live to each other.”

“Death’s greatest power is not that it can make people die, but that it can make people want to stop living.”

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A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Synopsis:

A grumpy yet loveable man finds his solitary world turned on its head when a boisterous young family moves in next door. 

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.

This was a book I bought purely for the love people have for it. I saw so many people hyping it up, so I jumped on the hype train and bought it.

It’s a story about love, loss, stubbornness, grief, and the people that can save your life. It’s definitely a heartwarming book even if the main character is an old grumpy man. I think everyone can relate to Ove in some way. Even more so for me once he has a cat following him around all day.

A Man Called Ove is a lighthearted read but it deals with very hard topics. I mean, he wants to die during the whole book. It’s not always a feel-good story.

I didn’t totally understand the hype the whole time I was reading it. But, once I finished, I realized that I really liked it a lot more than I thought I did. I’ll say it’s very different. But, I don’t really know how to describe why. Maybe it’s the point of view it’s told from. Or maybe it’s the wild cast of characters. Whatever it is, it makes for an interesting read that can teach you some lessons along the way.

4/5 Stars

Memorable Quotes: “People said Ove saw the world in black and white. But she was color. All the color he had.”

“Death is a strange thing. People live their whole lives as if it does not exist, and yet it’s often one of the greatest motivations for living. Some of us, in time, become so conscious of it that we live harder, more obstinately, with more fury. Some need its constant presence to even be aware of its antithesis. Others become so preoccupied with it that they go into the waiting room long before it has announced its arrival. We fear it, yet most of us fear more than anything that it may take someone other than ourselves. For the greatest fear of death is always that it will pass us by. And leave us there alone.”

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