What happens when a bank robbery, an apartment-viewing, a hostage situation and an investigation go wrong all at once?

Anxious people tells the tale of 12 strangers who are so humanly flawed, the choices they've made (which are equally as flawed) and how they come together. Readers uncover the events of the bank robbery, apartment-viewing, hostage-situation-investigation gone wrong all while watching as the characters battle their own individual anxieties and help each other all at once. Such a honest and compassionate look at human nature - and maybe how we can all save another.

It read like a mystery, captivating, and quick. It left you wanting to uncover another clue every time you put it down. (Even though it wasn't actually a mystery.) It was complex and easy to read all at once. It was not at all what I thought it was going to be, and I'm so glad it was.

Goodness this was a wonderful book. I tried to read "A Man Called Ove" multiple times but couldn't get into it; that was not the case here. Funny, fascinating, moving-it covered all the bases. I finished it in tears because of the story and the fact that it was over. I will absolutely re-read this.

Fredik Backman has a way of creating characters you can relate to and feel for. He also does an amazing job weaving a story together and making characters relatable. His books read fast because it’s so hard to put it down. I think they are thought provoking and a great discussion piece. This book and his Martin Luther quote are kind of everything right now. The message of loving each other and saving those we can, doing the right thing, and just being kind to each other. The overarching theme of family and how it can be more than just your blood relatives, it can be a complete stranger the reaches out and changes your life.

Well, my heart is still so full, like physically aching because of happiness. This book is hard to describe because it follows no organized plot structure and because it introduces characters with snippets of information that can range from past info to present info.

The simple premise is this: 9 strangers meet at an apartment viewing when a bank robber shows up and holds them hostage. Obviously, there is so much more to the story: more to the situation, more to the people, more to the place. The short chapters tell us about those nine people as well as some of their own relationships, as well as the lives of the two policemen in charge of the case.

The book is a character study that simply exists to remind us that humanity is, essentially, good. We also learn that we are inexplicably linked to each other, and that we can cause goodness or we can do the opposite. We are also reminded that we are, all of us, idiots (in Backman's repetitive wording!) However, the book isn't an easy read: suicide is one of the links connecting people; and depression and anxiety also play a part. Backman never once negates these issues as plot points or skims over the devastation and pain associated with them. He merely incorporates these points to remind humans of our resilience--and how good can grow back where previously only darkness abided.

I love when books give me a physical reaction: be that fury and anger or happiness and satisfaction. I can feel all the love and satisfaction--in a way that makes me think that my heart just grew a few sizes bigger. I'm just so touched, and I think it can be a blanket statement that right now in our world, we need all the books like this that we can get. I highlighted SO MANY passages that just spoke to me. I know it's been said that Shakespeare was a master because of his ability to write about humanity and human nature, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Backman is giving him some serious competition. The way he can write the most profound descriptions of human nature--the good and the bad--is beyond commendable. I can't rave enough about this book.

Thank you to Atria Books and Netgalley for the ARC.

While our library is likely to purchase a copy, Anxious People doesn't have the same magic as other Fredrik Backman books. Identifying characters in an impersonal way, job titles as opposed to names, made it difficult to connect with and differentiate characters. Backman characters are usually the highlight of his books, they come off the page, but for whatever reason this one missed the mark. I'm such a big fan of Backman's other books and my heart hurts a little that I can't give this title a rave review.

What a lovely, lovely book. Anxious people is, at its heart, about human connection and the impact we have on those we meet. But it's also about mental health, the issues and fear that come with being a parent, and love in it's many various shapes and sizes. Beartown might be favorite Backman book but this one has now been added to my list of most charming books.

Such a charming, feel-good story! Has all the charm as "A Man Called Ove" - Mr. Backman is a talented storyteller! Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC.

I found the beginning of this book slow and made me lose faith in Fredrick Backman but then it became good. Really good. Excellent. And my faith was restored.

A bank robber tries to rob a bank. Finds out that it's cashless and in a panic runs into an apartment viewing. With a gun being waved around, people assume that they are being held hostage. And all the bank robber wants is to do is go home and forget that this ever happened.

At its heart, this book is about not committing suicide and forgiving yourself for your stupid mistakes. All the hostages are flawed people. Hilariously flawed. Deep down, they are trying their best for each other and their loved ones. They have made mistakes and they bond with each other. And the twists made me want to reread as soon as I was done.

This review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the digital ARC of Anxious People by Fredrik Backman in exchange for an honest review. I have read one other book by this author: A Man Called Ove. I loved it. Once again Fredrik Backman has us take a look at the shortcomings of human beings, and the power of relationships. The characters in the story were wonderful. This was a great read.

This story is about a lot of things, but mostly idiots."

I think that's one of the best lines I've read in a long time. This story had so many pieces and so many people. It's amazing how the author made them all come together into this story and how interconnected they all were. I honestly had no idea where the story was going and was surprised every time I read another chapter.

One of the best books I've read this year!
Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

A quality return to the original Backman of exploring the sweet interconnections of people. It was an absolute pleasure to read!

I truly believe he could write a MENU and I would love it. The humanity in his books is nothing short of a miracle.
. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.

This is probably one of my favorite books of the year. I had previously read A Man Called Ove but wasn't a huge fan of it, but this one was engaging and there were twists and turns that kept the reader on their toes. A huge focus of the book was about the consequences of judging people and their motives and how you can't assume anything about a person until you've understood where they've come from. The book explores the relationships between all the people who are stuck in the apartment with the bank robber, but also focuses on the two police officers who are dealing with the hostage situation.

I would suggest that readers jump into this one knowing as little as possible about the book. I had read the synopsis a few months ago so I had forgotten it by the time I opened up the book. I re-read the synopsis after finishing the book and realized that the things that I enjoyed being surprised about or things that I had a suspicion they were not what they seemed were already hinted at in the summary, so I suggest going in with as little info as possible.

In the book, there were so many amusing moments in between the serious and heavy ones. A perfect combination and a very well-balanced novel. I'll definitely be getting a physical copy for my shelf. I'm going to want to revisit this story in the future.

What a wonderful novel as I had hoped it would be. It is both funny and poignant while also writing about a serious issue. The dialogue is sassy and the group of hostages, eccentric to say the least. With tears I hated to see this book end and I will be purchasing the hard copy.

A bank robbery goes wrong and the robber ends up at an apartment open house with a group of would-be hostages. The story goes back and forth between the time spent in the apartment and the subsequent police interviews. Readers must untangle the knots in the plot of this heart-warming caper to figure out what really happened during the open house.

The framework of this book is quite different from other Backman novels, but the depth of the characters remains true. I struggled to get through the first half, as everyone initially comes across as quite unlikeable, but the second half rewards the readers with touching dialogue. Although the characters, at times, seemed dole out a little too much of life’s wisdom, I liked where the story took them. This is one of those stories that you grow to like more and more the longer it sits with you.

Oh Frederik, how do you do it? How do you take a situation that you think you know and turn it into something so much deeper than you can imagine.

Let me be clear, I am in love with Frederik Backman’s writing so, the minute I heard him announce his new book on his social media feeds, I started stalking (for real checking daily) to see if a galley would become available. I was thrilled to get it – thrilled to start it and stalled SO much for the last few chapters because I just didn’t want it to end.

If you have read Backman’s writing before, you will recognize his conversational cadence in this book. It truly feels like he is narrating this story outloud and someone is transcribing it to paper. It is so rare to find an author that can pull off that narrative style and still have amazing character depth. Anxious People, on its surface is about a bank robbery gone wrong that turns into a hostage situation gone wrong which turns into a police investigation gone wrong. It seems like it would have all of the makings of a campy novel destined to become a Netflix movie or something but it is as much about the situation as Beartown was about hockey. Which is to say, not much.

The story is really about people who are stuck together under extraordinary circumstances. None of them would ever interact with one another with all things equal but, throughout the book, their intertwined stories in a small town reveal themselves to show that they are not so far apart as they might think. Somehow, Backman is able to make me laugh out loud, tear up and celebrate the absurd in the world in one lovely little novel. I have a whole Kindle full of quotes that I wanted to include in this review but, since its an unfinished copy, I’m holding myself to just the one

Definitely be looking out for this novel when it is released on September 8th (yeah I know – you have awhile to wait but it is worth it I promise!) Thanks to Netgalley, Atria Books, and Frederik Backman for the copy of this novel in exchange for the honest review.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have start by saying that Fredrick Backman is one of my favourite authors. I always greet new works of his with great anticipation. And this book did not disappoint. In fact, it on,y made me appreciate his writing and story telling even more.

Backman is empathetic and insightful. He can get inside characters and bring them to life in a way that has the audience cheering for (almost) everyone. And loving the interactions between everyone on the story as well.

This is the story of a bank robbery that is not a bank robbery, a hostage taking that is not a hostage taking and a bridge that is central to every thing that is and is not part of this story. It is a tale of how a person always seems to have to try to be good enough but really can’t do it on their own. Or, as the author states on more than one occasion: it is the story of idiots—because ‘it’s so horribly, desperately easy to fail at being grown-up.’

But, more than being about idiots, this book is about love and the essential goodness of human beings. Read it. You will laugh. You will cry. You won’t want it to end. But when it does end, you will want to think about how you can also be a good person and help others be the best they can be also. Because, in the end, that is what really matters. And that is what Backman has the ability to bring out. I hope his next book will come out really, really soon!

PS: make sure you have tissues. You will likely need them!

I purposefully parcelled this book out over several days so that I could savour the writing, think about the characters, and enjoy the reading even though I wanted to binge through it. Backman's writing always gives me pause, as he describes or says something so perfectly that I wish I had written the words.

As in other Backman books there are a lot of characters that intertwine in amazing ways by the end of the story. I found myself getting to a point and realizing that I had made assumptions about things, yet when i went back to check what had led me astray I found that the clever use of language, combined with my own biases were all that was there. AS with other Backman books I smiled, laughed, teared up, and was sad when it was finished.

This is a book about being human. About the inner insecurities we all have about our worthiness. About kindness and community. How strangers can sometimes see us better. About kindness not necessarily requiring a great deal of effort to make a great deal of impact on the receiver.

This is a different translator than previous books so initially it read differently for me, not as lyrical as I had found other writings by Backman, by the mid-point of the book I no longer noticed any difference.

"We give those we love nicknames because love requires a word that belongs to us alone."

"Jim held on to the handrail to stop himself collapsing as his heart broke. Empathy is like vertigo."

"The worst thing a divorce does to a person isn't that it makes all the time you devoted to the relationship feel wasted, but that it steals all the plans you had for the future."

"The people who come to her were the ones who were in so much pain that it felt like they were standing on a railing with one foot over the edge, and she sat in her chair opposite them with eyes that said: "I've been here before. I know a better way down."

"Because that was a parent's job: to provide shoulders. Shoulders for your children to sit on when they're little so they can see the world, then stand on when they get older so they can reach the clouds, and sometimes lean against whenever they stumble and feel unsure."

"He's always felt that the hardest thing about death is the grammar."

"We save those we can. We do our best. Then we try to find a way to convince ourselves that that will just have to ....be enough. So we can live with our failures without drowning."

'Addicts are addicted to their drugs, and their families are addicted to hope."

"Because her parents had taught her during their flight through the mountains that humor is the soul's last line of defence, and as long as we're laughing we're alive, so bad puns and fart jokes were their way of expressing their defiance against despair."

Thank you to Atria Books for allowing me to read an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Anxious People
A Novel
by Fredrik Backman
Atria Books
General Fiction (Adult) | Literary Fiction
Pub Date 08 Sep 2020 | Archive Date 01 Jan 2021

An absolute gem of a book. Loved it! Thanks to Net Galley and Atria Books for the ARC. As a librarian, I like to read all the good books before our patrons so I can give a good recommendation or not.
5 star

At a time when so many are social distancing, Backman gathers close a delightful cast of characters. The banter is natural and the twist telling. A feel good read punctuated with insightful truths.