This is one of the books I grabbed with the promotion "Take 4 pay for 3" while I was in Sweden. I had heard a lot about it and also read some very positive reviews from you out there. I can only agree, what a wonderful, funny reflection on people and lives today. It has been compared to "The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared", and it is in the same genre, but still a totally different book. The humour and the reflections on life are the same though.
This is the story of Ove, recently widowed, and still missing his wife. She was the only person in the world that understood him. He is a grumpy old man, and was already when he was young. A very practical person who can fully take care of himself and fix everything around him that needs to be fixed. Not very verbal, maybe not very intelligent, but he makes up his own world and live in it according to his principals. He is annoying most people around him, and now it is even worst after his wife died.
Then one day and Iranian/Swedish family move in next door in this little suburban area where he lives. His life will never be the same again. All of a sudden, Ove, who is a man of solitude and likes it this way, seems to have a lot of people around him, plus a cat, and he does not even like cats! Slowly, slowly Ove is drawn into another kind of life, and thinking of it...it is not that bad.
There is a lot more to this story and it is told in a very humorous way, and through Ove's mind and comments we see the world in all its weirdness and it gives us a little bit to think of. I can easy relate to certain things that are happening, and understand Ove's reactions. He is, like many of us, stuck in our way of being and the most difficult thing is to change. There needs to be an outside force that hits us unaware...in Ove's case this is a young, pregnant Iranian woman!
A must read!
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