A Man Called Ove

Ove is fifty-nine and drives a Saab. Every morning he patrols the neighborhood, checking who parked in the wrong spot and who didn't sort their recycling. He thinks most people are idiots, especially the ones who drive BMWs, wear skinny jeans or can't back up a car.

He's just been pushed into "early retirement," and his wife Sonja died six months ago. He tidies the house, pays the electric bill, drills a hook into the ceiling, and decides to die.

Then the new neighbors back their trailer into his mailbox.

It's Parvaneh, a pregnant Iranian woman, with two little daughters and a husband who can't reverse a trailer to save his life. From then on, every time Ove is ready to go, someone interrupts: a neighbor needs a ladder, someone wants driving lessons, a half-dead stray cat is freezing in the snow outside his door. He grumbles no, no, no, and then carries the cat inside.

Backman started out writing grumpy-old-man bits about a character named Ove on his blog. They grew into this novel, which became a huge hit in Sweden, was turned into an Oscar-nominated film, and later got an American remake starring Tom Hanks.

A person's stubbornness is often how they hold their world together. Ove insists on fixing his own car, following the rules and never compromising, because there was one person in his life who carried all the softness for him.

Lonely people don't need rescuing. They need interrupting. Parvaneh never tells Ove to "look on the bright side." She just keeps knocking, borrowing things, pushing food into his hands. Sometimes what keeps a person in this world is a steady supply of small inconveniences.

Loving someone means seeing the world in their colors. The book slowly flashes back to Ove and Sonja's life together, and bit by bit you understand how a black-and-white man came to love someone the way he did.

A lot of people laugh through the first half and cry through the second. Read it if there's a gruff, tender, tongue-tied older person in your life, or if you've been feeling like you just don't fit in the world. You might want to call someone when you're done.

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