Fredrik Backman: Anxious People

Ten years ago, a man stood on a bridge. A teenage boy happened upon the scene and tried to talk to that man, but failed to stop him from jumping. Anxious People 📚 is not about that man, but it just may be about that bridge. Superficially it’s about a bank robbery gone wrong, ending in a hostage situation, but, as the author says, it’s more about stupid people. And it’s not really about stupid people either: it’s just about people with issues, and some bad decisions, when they’re just trying to be good. The robbery is covered fast-forward style in the first chapter. After that, the book progresses on two levels: present time, with the police interviewing the witnesses, trying to figure out how it is possible that the robber vanished after letting the hostages go, and in the past, during the hostage situation. Sometimes the author takes a bit of time to just address the reader directly in some commentary of the situation. The hostages, taken in an open house event, are a colorful lot of…