Title: A Man Called Ove

Author: Fredrik Backman

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.

Oh this book. This book. This was something I didn’t know I needed!

I love Ove, I think I’m a Parvaneh type of person and would’ve been exactly the same as her towards Ove but I am incredibly sad for him, not that he’d want me to be, he wouldn’t care what I thought!  

Ove’s wife, Sonja, is a 1st class woman. Someone I would love to meet. Her and Ove are literally chalk and cheese….but it worked and it worked well.

‘People said Ove saw the world in black and white. But she was colour. All the colour he had.’

The morning check, the cat, the snow shovelling, the Saab love, the Residents Association, the relationships, the love that spilled from these pages. I absolutely loved every word, every sentence, every paragraph and every chapter.

I don’t cry at books but did have a little tear at the end of this because it was heartbreaking and so, so heartwarming.