Name: A Man Called Ove
Rating: 4.397471910112359 (890 reviews)
ISBN: 9781594139833

Fredrik Backman

"Published ... by arrangement with Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc."--Colophon.

A Man Called Ove

Alina

Nandita Joshi 

Eslie

Ove feels an instinctive skepticism towards all people taller than six feet; the blood can’t quite make it all the way up to the brain.

Darshini ✨

You miss the strangest things when you lose someone. Little things. Smiles. The way she turned over in her sleep. Even repainting a room for her.

Jessie!

But if anyone had asked, he would have told them that he never lived before he met her. And not after either.

Julia

And she was colour. All the colour he had.

Srijita Sarkar 

Dreya

Elad Schulman

It was as if he didn't want other people to talk to him, he was afraid that their chattering voices would drown out the memory of her voice.

“Loving someone is like moving into a house,” Sonja used to say. “At first you fall in love with all the new things, amazed every morning that all this belongs to you, as if fearing that someone would suddenly come rushing in through the door to explain that a terrible mistake had been made, you weren’t actually supposed to live in a wonderful place like this. Then over the years the walls become weathered, the wood splinters here and there, and you start to love that house not so much because of all its perfection, but rather for its imperfections. You get to know all the nooks and crannies. How to avoid getting the key caught in the lock when it’s cold outside. Which of the floorboards flex slightly when one steps on them or exactly how to open the wardrobe doors without them creaking. These are the little secrets that make it your home.”

It is difficult to admit that one is wrong. Particularly when one has been wrong for a very long time.

Love is a strange thing. It takes you by surprise.

'THE PERFECT HOLIDAY READ' Evening Standard 'A JOY FROM START TO FINISH' - Gavin Extence, author of THE UNIVERSE VERSUS ALEX WOODS There is something about Ove. At first sight, he 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... The word-of-mouth bestseller causing a sensation across Europe, Fredrik Backman's heartwarming debut is a funny, moving, uplifting tale of love and community that will leave you with a spring in your step - and less ready to judge on first impressions a man you might one day wish to have as your dearest friend.

Edwin Lang

I rated this novel four stars because it was both realistic and fantastic. I found it a wonderful and innocent little story, a really delightful read over the space of five days after Christmas, a hard to out down read. On the surface it was simply the story of an old man, Ove, who had lost his beloved to cancer six months prior. His life had ended with her illness and death: there is nothing special about that, dealing with the traumatic loss of a soul mate. It was similarly reasonable that Ove would want to die. That he could not was, partly, what made the story so fun. Ove is a serious man. Always has been. More so perhaps - but only a little since his wife’s passing. Fredrik Backman though introduces Ove to his neighbours. One of the most delightful though is an Iranian woman – ‘the ‘pregnant one’ – who to her credit does not take Ove’s grumpiness to heart. Like his wife, Parvaneh sees the colour in Ove, sees his inherent goodness. There is an element of humour that carries us through the beginning of the story. There is also nothing about Ove that as readers we do not like. He is just rather old and cantankerous, and set, and miserable and vocal. There is at least twice in the book that Ove reflects that Sonia, his now dead wife, had brought colour into his otherwise mundane life. And we can believe that: Ove was more a machine than a person, a good man nonetheless, and living his life almost by instinct and on principle – being a good man on principle. I liked though when Ove and Sonia met on the train: when he pursued her, at least to the best of his ability, and one could see as Fredrik Backman drew it anyways, how they came alive in each other’s presence. I was not sure if it could be sustained: she, a teacher, so live to all around her and to the intellect; and Ove such as simple hard working man. But he had such great integrity, such strength in body and in character. He plodded, persevered, where lesser men would fall away in distraction. Douglas Coupman in Kitten Clone, a book ostensibly about Alcatel Lucent but really about humanity’s future (“What is to become of us?’) suggests the Internet is rewiring our brains, that we will become a distracted people and that, essentially, any form of activity requiring concentration (such as reading fiction) will disappear. There was something very grounded and reassuring about Ove, and in spite of his grumpiness and apparent anti-socialness, something in him that people like, and people like Parvaneh could see. Like Sonia Parvaneh quickly grew to love Ove, and so do we readers: there was something substantial and authentic about good old Ove. Ove wants to die; and, I, almost from the earliest moment of the story to Backman’s credit, do not want him to. I wanted to see more of the man. That was a rather scary moment actually, when he went about quite meticulously planning and readying to hang himself, that I felt that Ove might be successful and that the story might be a retrospective. In this A Man called Ove is essentially seems a very Western book, where there exists an individual and this individual has intrinsic value and worth: that such a simple man could evoke such love and respect. He is like the simple Amal, a short story and Hindi movie released a few years ago, about ‘the happiest rickshaw driver in Delhi, not because life was going especially well for him but because he remains true to himself no matter what life brings’. Ove was like that, sturdy, a tree that the strongest winds could not bring down. Ove is completely accidental, and I suppose this is the beauty of the book: most people in his position would just die, that is successfully hang themselves and die. There is an underlying theme about incompetence, that a manufacturer would actually make and sell rope that would fray under Ove’s (reasonable) weight. It is her husband Patrick’s incompetence that draws Parvaneh and Patrick to seek Ove’s assistance, and thereafter draws her and like a virus draws others into Ove’s sphere of influence. I guess what I am searching for here is to try to explain why a book about an ordinary man is so interesting to so many, including me: I live in a community where people see people and care for them in a small way. But it is funny what makes a community like this work, at least for a while. The arrangement – the cooperation - though is so fragile, and so tentative. I think what makes the story so compelling is that at heart it is a revolutionary story: begone ye ‘white shirts’, begone ye control-freak Prime Minister Harper who believes in no one but himself and his circle of elites, begone ye Putins, begone ye incompetent Obamas, begone ye selfish Republicans, begone all ye you pursue money for its sake alone: then again I may have read too much into the story. It was fun and immensely entertaining, that perhaps even a brain re-wired to accommodate the Internet might enjoy. Edwin

A curmudgeon hides a terrible personal loss beneath a cranky and short-tempered exterior while clashing with new neighbors, a boisterous family whose chattiness and habits lead to unexpected friendship.

A Novel

Jennifer

Heartwarming and endearing. I can't wait to see how Tom Hanks makes and acts in this movie! 

Allie Escobedo

Ove is not a jerk. He's just principled. And if you don't fall in love with Ove by the end, you are not reading the book right!

The million-copy bestselling phenomenon, Fredrik Backman's heartwarming debut is a funny, moving, uplifting tale of love and community that will leave you with a spring in your step. Perfect for fans of Rachel Joyce's The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Project and David Nicholl's US. New York Times bestseller 'Warm, funny, and almost unbearably moving' Daily Mail 'Rescued all those men who constantly mean to read novels but never get round to it' Spectator Books of the Year 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...

Michelle Dsouza

A Man Called Ove held my heart in its hands and squeezed it. Gently. Then completely. I actually listened to the audiobook first and loved it so much that I immediately bought the physical book because I knew I wanted to read it again. That rarely happens for me. This story has that kind of pull. At first glance, the premise sounds deceptively simple. Ove is the kind of older man who seems made entirely of irritation. He polices parking spaces, corrects strangers, and seems personally offended by the existence of modern life. The book introduces him as a rigid rule follower who thinks society is collapsing because nobody does things properly anymore. And then you keep reading. And you slowly realize the story is not about a grumpy man at all. It is about grief. It is about what happens when a person builds their entire life around love and then that love disappears. Ove’s stubbornness, his rules, his endless irritation with the world, all of it begins to look less like personality and more like armor. Fredrik Backman is doing something very deliberate here. The novel uses humor to open the door and heartbreak to walk you through it. What starts as something almost comedic gradually reveals a deeper story about loneliness, loss, and the quiet ways people save each other without even realizing they are doing it. The writing is deceptively simple but incredibly precise. Backman has a way of delivering emotional punches in the middle of what looks like an ordinary sentence. You think you are reading something light and funny and suddenly the book is sitting directly in your chest. Ove himself is one of the most memorable characters I have come across in a long time. You are not supposed to like him at first. That is the trick. He is prickly, judgmental, and difficult. But the more you learn about him, the more those edges start to make sense. And once the story reveals what shaped him, the grumpiness becomes something else entirely. The structure of the novel works beautifully as well. Backman alternates between the present and the past in a way that slowly recontextualizes everything you thought you understood about Ove. Each memory adds weight, and by the time the emotional pieces fully click together, the book lands with enormous force. What makes the story stand out is that it never turns grief into spectacle. The sadness here feels real, lived-in, and deeply human. But the novel also refuses to stay in despair. It is just as much about community, kindness, and the accidental ways people pull each other back into life. I also have to admit that this book hit me personally. I grew up surrounded by two Oves. The same stubbornness. The same quiet decency. The same kind of love that is rarely spoken but constantly shown through actions. They are no longer here, and reading this felt like spending time with them again. I cried through parts of this book. Not because it was manipulative, but because it was honest. By the end, I was not just emotional. I was grateful. And genuinely, if this book leaves you with anything, it is this: the next time you see someone older who has lost their partner, hug them. Even if they act like Ove. Especially if they act like Ove.

୨ৎ : 'ove had never been asked how he lived before he met her. but if anyone had asked him, he would have answered that he didn’t.'

havent even started my review and im already sobbing. this book was fucking everything to me. ove didnt want to die he just wanted to be with sonja and it breaks my heart. 

this book was so heartbreaking, but also heartwarming. the way fredrik backmans writes his characters just tug at the heartstrings. 

nothing will ever repair my broken pieces after this book. i was in a puddle of tears multiple times. the way ove talked about sonja, the way everyone truly did love him despite his grumpy demeanour, and the way ove really did learn to care for everyone and make his own little family. 

i could probably talk all day about how this book made me feel but i fear i cant see through the tears. so if you havent read it. you need too now. this is a threat.  

୨ৎ : 'ove had never been asked how he lived before he met her. but if anyone had asked him, he would have answered that he didn’t.'

— ☆ 5/5

havent even started my review and im already sobbing. this book was fucking everything to me. ove didnt want to die he just wanted to be with sonja and it breaks my heart. 

this book was so heartbreaking, but also heartwarming. the way fredrik backmans writes his characters just tug at the heartstrings. 

nothing will ever repair my broken pieces after this book. i was in a puddle of tears multiple times. the way ove talked about sonja, the way everyone truly did love him despite his grumpy demeanour, and the way ove really did learn to care for everyone and make his own little family. 

i could probably talk all day about how this book made me feel but i fear i cant see through the tears. so if you havent read it. you need too now. this is a threat.  

I didn’t realise I could love a book so much.

After Anxious People, this is the 2nd book of Fredrik Backman that I read and absolutely loved. I don't think I have come across any author yet who has brought so many emotions out of me the way Backman has done. 

Ove is this fascinating character who is tough nut from outside but has a big heart (literally) inside. We go on a ride with Ove (in Ove's Saab) as he rediscovers the purpose of life and along with him we discover many beautiful characters and incidences told wonderfully by the Author.

I can keep on praising Backman and his Ove but I don't think Ove would like that.

Adwait Kulkarni

After Anxious People, this is the 2nd book of Fredrik Backman that I read and absolutely loved. I don't think I have come across any author yet who has brought so many emotions out of me the way Backman has done. 

Ove is this fascinating character who is tough nut from outside but has a big heart (literally) inside. We go on a ride with Ove (in Ove's Saab) as he rediscovers the purpose of life and along with him we discover many beautiful characters and incidences told wonderfully by the Author.

I can keep on praising Backman and his Ove but I don't think Ove would like that.

Fun and actually helped me empathize with the guy. Love you, Ove. Made me cry.

Roseanne

I won’t lie, at first I really was thinking how in the world this character can be redeemed by being so bitter and just the typical grumpy old man…all I have to say now is that it has given me a whole new perspective.

Ove is a big oxymoron, selfishly selfless, to say the least. He didn’t like being bothered but couldn’t stand others not being able to help themselves, with such simple tasks, even more and in the process not only saving lives but changing them for the better. He won me over and yes, this book made me cry.

I will say personally I’m not a fan of third person pov and it sometimes seems a bit repetitive on the way the author writes his sentences but overall this book is just something special. 

lily

I won’t lie, at first I really was thinking how in the world this character can be redeemed by being so bitter and just the typical grumpy old man…all I have to say now is that it has given me a whole new perspective.

Ove is a big oxymoron, selfishly selfless, to say the least. He didn’t like being bothered but couldn’t stand others not being able to help themselves, with such simple tasks, even more and in the process not only saving lives but changing them for the better. He won me over and yes, this book made me cry.

I will say personally I’m not a fan of third person pov and it sometimes seems a bit repetitive on the way the author writes his sentences but overall this book is just something special. 

I loved the book, the characters, their relationships. I love how you slowly understand why ove is how he is. I want to read more from fredrik backman now. might even watch the movie adaptation

Rutik 

I keep reading these stories about strangers becoming family and I love it. I like exploring the good in humans.

Ani Velasquez

I keep reading these stories about strangers becoming family and I love it. I like exploring the good in humans.

This book was hug!

This book will both make you sob and make you want a cat. This was beautiful and restored a little bit of my faith in humanity. Ove is such a delight to read about, he’ll make this book stick with me for a very long time. 

Beth Bartholomew

I’d like to thank my boyfriend <3 because he’s the only one who has motivated me throughout 😭😭

Keira 💫

I did it!!! 

I finished my first book in MONTHS. 

Let’s go. 

I’d like to thank my boyfriend <3 because he’s the only one who has motivated me throughout 😭😭

This book simultaneously had me laughing out loud and crying. I would put it in my top ten honestly! 

Kass

I can’t believe I DNF’d this book but I’m so happy that I picked it back up. A Man Called Ove is my new personality.

🥔

Such a beautiful, funny, emotional brilliant book. So pleased I read it and would recommend it. It's just so different and so good.

Sarah Chauvidon

i cant stop crying this book is so beautiful i cant even express how much this book made me FEEL aaaaaa just heartbreaking

Read the New York Times bestseller that has taken the world by storm In this "charming debut" (People) from one of Sweden's most successful authors, 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. A feel-good story in the spirit of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, Fredrik Backman's novel about the angry old man next door is a thoughtful exploration of the profound impact one life has on countless others. "If there was an award for 'Most Charming Book of the Year, ' this first novel by a Swedish blogger-turned-overnight-sensation would win hands down" (Booklist, starred review).

Maureen

“But if anyone had asked, he would have told them that he never lived before he met her. And not after either.”

***

3.5 stars. I will always be too soft for old people’s stories. Ove is the most devoted husband I’ve ever come across in a book, and I love that despite his brusque and cold exterior, the man’s all-encompassing love for his wife never changes. I mostly stayed for the development of their love story rather than narrative that ran alongside it. Overall, I expected something toward the end— and it would have changed my rating to 4 stars. Nevertheless, a heartwarming read about devotion, principles, and unlikely friendships.

Svetlana 

Ove deserves whole world, everyone leave him alone

Kirsten Kim

have never cried so hard in my life i think i popped a blood vessel

always so much heart 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

karina

always so much heart 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

a reread but i love it every time

This was so good. It has been a while since I have read contemporary fiction and I made the right choice with this book. It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me feel every emotion deeply. It has become one of my favourites.

A Man Called Ove

Reviews

Highlights