Synopsis:
A little book with a big heart—from the New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove and Anxious People.
From the New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, Britt-Marie Was Here, and Anxious People 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.
Review:
“But the universe gave you both Noah. He’s the bridge between you. That’s why we get the chance to spoil our grandchildren, because by doing that we’re apologizing to our children.”
Yeah, this one’s on me. I know the might of Fredrik Backman having read ‘My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s sorry’ previously. I picked this one up because it was short, only an hour-long audiobook on Libby. I went into it pretty confident that it wouldn’t make me cry. Surely it can’t be as heavy and moving as a full-sized novel. Right? Right?
What I had forgotten was, it only took about 20 minutes into ‘My Grandmother…’ before I started crying. I went back and checked my notes and there it was, cried at chapter 2, cried at chapter 4, bawled at chapter… It didn’t matter that this book was just about less than a hundred pages, Backman doesn’t need pages and pages to make the reader cry or make them feel for his characters. He is able to achieve it in just one or two chapters.
“It hurts less and less. That’s one thing about forgetting things. You forget things that hurt too.”
This book deals with the story of a grandfather with Alzheimer’s who’s slowly starting to lose his memory and how he feels about his son and his grandson. Backman always writes extremely realistic characters and this book is no different. Even across three different generations, the author nails the characterization of each person.
Initially, it was a bit confusing because the story switched POVs in between paragraphs but by halfway I understood why the story is structured that way. It is a short, sweet, and sad story. I absolutely loved it and immediately went to buy the hardcover. Everyone should definitely give this and other Backman books a try if they haven’t already.
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