A Man Called Ove

This debut novel by Fredrik Backman was turned down by numerous publishers before finally being bought and has now become an international best seller. As is too often the case, I was lukewarm while  others rave about it. The premise is that Ove is a committed curmudgeon with a hidden heart of gold.  The outcomes are predictable. Behind his grumpy exterior is the painful loss of Ove's wife, Sonja, 6 months ago and now he has lost the will to live. In a touch of black humor, Ove keeps devising new ways to kill himself but is constantly being interrupted by neighbors dealing with the problems of living. He adopts the abused feral cat, he helps out the immigrant neighbor, Parvana, when her inept husband falls and breaks a leg, he intervenes when social services try to remove another neighbor to a care facility. Eventually he has reconnected with enough people that life again takes on promise. It is a nice story, apparently has been made into a movie. The text has a distinctly Scandinavian flavor but is much lighter fare than the predominantly noir novels that usually make it here.

There are lots of reviews including The New York Times, and Kirkus. And if you want to know how to pronounce the title, go to the video clip on the publisher's website.