Britt-Marie Was Here: A Novel Kindle Edition

Britt-Marie was Here is the best book I've read this year. Simply put, it is fantastic.Britt-Marie is difficult, frustrating and socially awkward. She is also insensitive and kind of rude. A minor character in My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry, Britt-Marie was instantly disliked in that book and is not well liked in the beginning of this one either. However, Fredrik Backman has this endearing way of making old curmudgeons likeable and being extremely successful at it (i.e. Ove and Britt-Marie). Her character, her ocd, her social ineptitude.. they grow on you. Here, we find out why she is the way she is and we discover that, due to her childhood and her marriage, she has felt invisible her whole life. She has trouble figuring out who she really is and is fanatical simply because it is the only thing she can control. Upon losing everything, she decides to find a job and is forced to move to a small town. In the process she finds a sense of humor, discovers that she is capable of making friends and also finds her sense of self.Fredrik Backman's A Man Called Ove was one of my favorite books ever. His writing style is smart, funny, quirky and just downright amazing. His characters are rich, well developed and beloved. In addition to Britt-Marie, Vega, Somebody, Bank, Sami and "the girl from the unemployment office" lent heart and soul to the story and gave Britt-Marie exactly what she needed: friends and reasons to go have at it.I didn't think it was possible for Mr. Backman to write another book that I'd love as much as "Ove" but if truth be told, I love this one more. It was truly phenomenal.

Boy oh boy, with all the depressing news out this year of 2020, Mr. Backman’s book is a much needed tonic. The author had me smiling from the beginning of page one. Much like his previous two wonderful books, ‘A Man Called Ove’ and ‘My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry,’ ‘Britt-Marie Was Here’ is inhabited by eccentric characters. Britt-Marie is a 63-year-old with, my guess, high-functioning autism who easily becomes “vexed” when things appear out of order or she deviates from her daily routine. She also interprets people’s comments literally, so figurative speech goes right over her head. Well, after spending forty years as a homemaker, she leaves her husband Kent when she discovers the guy’s been having an affair. It is a big leap for her, far outside her comfort zone, and is a great setup for a Fredrik Backman story.‘Britt-Marie Was Here’ takes place in present-day Sweden. The problems she encounters are universal. You don’t need to understand Swedish culture to appreciate the book. Whenever Britt-Marie is anxious she cleans, baking soda being her main tool. Through an unemployment agency, she takes a temporary job in a small rural town that is down on its luck. The place is inhabited by an eclectic mix of citizens who are struggling to get by now that their town’s main employer has closed. Community pride is very low. Britt’s entrance causes quite a stir because of her abnormal characteristics including blunt honesty and being social inept. Mr. Backman mines it for loads of humor. At its core, the story accentuates the fact that everyone has their own private struggles and we all need encouragement now and then.The story is a whimsical one with a lot of heart and empathy. I did laugh out loud a number of times due to the dialogue between Britt and various town folks. It includes some tender believable moments that enhance the novel. Mr. Backman maintains a nice balance between the humor and serious issues. The ending is perfect, just perfect. I very much needed a story like ‘Britt-Marie Was Here.’ It’s a nice palliative against the toxic environment we are currently enduring.

I am so in love with this author! I was given A Man Called Ove for Christmas a few weeks ago and could not put it down. I can't recall the last time I literally laughed OUT LOUD reading a book, and with this one I did several times. And cried. And smiled. The book ended and I felt that saddness like when a good friend visits from far away then leaves to go back home.So I immediately looked for another book by him and found Britt-Marie Was Here. Another incredible book where you fall in love with the characters, you recognize yourself in some, people you know in others, and you cheer for them, hurt for them and all at once feel like you could walk right in and know everyone immediately...like you've never been away.I can't wait to start my next book by Fredrik Backman. His stories are such treasure. I'm grateful we were introduced by one who knows me so well. enjoy!

Absolutely loved this book! I'd began my journey with the author in My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry where we first meet Britt-Marie, a rather annoying, aggravating, socially inept character, the type of character we've probably all met in real life, and yet sometimes we want to know what makes them tick. Was Britt-Marie always this way, did she become this way and if so, why? Will she always be this way - which is why we're reading the book. Britt-Marie Was Here answers those questions, is amusing, dramatic, thoughtful, poignant . Backman's books are deceptively simple tales laced with little gems of wisdom. I like to read before bed and eagerly looked forward to the next chapter and almost hated when I reached the end. A side note - anyone who prefers cleanliness and order, likes to clean, or cleans furiously out of frustration, anger, revenge or denial will see a part of themselves in this book I certainly did. I also rediscovered the many uses for baking soda. My only issue with Backman's books is that I read them faster than he can write them.

I have to confess I love Fredrik Backman and have read all his books. In my humble opinion you need to read "My Grandmother sends her apologies" before this book as this is where you first meet Britt-Marie. This book is a little hard to get into but once I was I read it in one sitting. Backman has a wonderful way of showing unlikable characters so you fall in love with them. They present as prickly but deep down they're hurting and represent us all.If this is your first look at Backman I would suggest you start with "A man called Ove" or "My Grandmother sends her apologies". Please give Fredrik Backman a go and I'm sure you'll fall in love as I have.

I love the author Fredrik Backman, and was very excited to receive a copy of Britt-Marie was here on Audible. This was my first foray into Audible and I was very pleasantly surprised. It was beautifully read, and the different voices came over well. I have been cooking a lot recently and was able to listen to the book while I cooked.Initially I found Britt-Marie quite irritating, with her compulsion to clean, and her very black and white views, however it is so cleverly written that you soon see the softer side to Britt-Marie. When her cheating ex husband Kent turns up you just want to shake him.This quirky lady gets under the skin of everyone in the town of Borg, from the children to the elderly, and before long you realise she is under your skin too.If you are looking for a book with lots of excitement and adventure this isn’t for you. If you are looking for a beautifully crafted story with lots of true to life characters, and something that will make you think then you will love it.

After reading a man called Ove, i was looking forward to reading more of the author, but after forcing myself to complete reading this one, i never want to see another book by him again.I get that the place is run down and little happens, but every single character in this tale should have been killed off, just before the author cuts his hands off, so as never to put anyone through such an ordeal again.O would rather count how many grains of rice are in a sack of it than ever go through the near coma these tedious and unlikeable characters are.Ove was ten out of ten, this is one out of a thousand.I would have given it to a charity shop, but decided to rip it up and bin it in order to save anyone from having to go through the tedium of this book.Not usually so negative, but he has made me hate reading again, so hence one star. He deserves zero but that isn't an option.At times this book made me wish i was blind or dyslexic.

Britt-Marie is quite a lonely soul. She has spent the last however many years looking after the house and her husband. All that changes when her husband leaves her and she has to go out in the world and find herself a job. The parts with Britt-Marie and the poor woman who works for the job centre were funny and sweet and I felt so sorry for this woman who Britt-Marie would call on literally any time of day and night!I know literally nothing about football even though I used to take my son to a local football club for training and matches when he was at school age. You would think I would have picked up something but I am as clueless as Britt-Marie when it comes to football. It was heart-warming reading of how she finds herself entwined with this local club as well as the youngsters that play the game. Borg has literally nothing really going for it yet you could feel a sense of community growing throughout the story.Britt-Marie Was Here has a protagonist which is very much the underdog coming out on top. It is sweet, sad, uplifting, as well as being emotional in part. As with a lot of this authors books, it’s the characters that excel and make them unputdownable reads. The author creates characters who on first appearances aren’t that likeable or memorable yet will have you falling hopelessly in love with their personalities by the end of the story as well as living on in your mind long after. Another novel where the characters will steal your heart!

I had just finished ''My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises'' and went straight into this. At first, I was slightly put off, because the style and even the genre is quite different to the first book. I also felt that there was insufficient connection between the two, as it seemed that earlier events were not being presented in the same way, but I began to see that the stories were the same, just from a very different standpoint. Although neither book is in the first person, the first book is dominated by Elsa's viewpoint and this is thoroughly shaped by Britt-Marie's perspective.It is interesting that some people really hated the first of these two books and some really seem to hate this one, one reviewer even claiming they never want to read a book again. That's like deciding to starve just because you accidentally ate a chili!Once I realised that the first book is both deeply formed by Elsa's seven, nearly eight, year old perceptions and by Granny's power as a world-maker and shaper, while this is shaped by Britt-Marie's past and her recent sudden change of circumstance, the apparent gulf between the books did not matter as much. The 'fish out of water' aspect of her tale made sense to me, since I have moved, in the past, from a relatively big, cosmopolitan, city to a relatively small community, with a very different sense of identity. The latter felt beleaguered and was experiencing many of the negative aspects of recession decades before the financial crisis of this book. It also made sense of how the people of Borg have both a strong sense of identity and even independence and yet a desperate need of help and of a sense of purpose.I can accept that a single individual can provide a catalyst that can help to give such purpose and deepen and refresh a sense of identity, but this is often a more-deliberately chosen path. Britt-Marie, on the other hand, seems to stumble into various new tasks and new roles, even as she tries, desperately to hold onto the old certainties and pathways. Unlike Granny, in the first book, Britt-Marie is both more rigid and inflexible and also more brittle and vulnerable. I wondered how close she was going to come to breaking. She seemed to cope with a brief cry, even though her whole world had been taken from her.The people of Borg seem to be the real heroes, simply because they have such resilience and an ability to accept, not just any stranger but, this stranger, with all her quirks and rigid expectations.As with the former book, this novel has a number of hinges, first there are the personal revelations that make sense of Britt-Marie's past, then there are the personal experiences which begin to resist Britt-Marie's attempts to shape them and begin to shape her in turn and finally, there are the events that decisively shape Borg and thus, the world itself. Sometimes, these shifts are humourous, sometimes challenging and provoking and sometimes they are deeply moving. The ending is not what I expected, nor what I wanted - where was Alf? - but it makes sense within the bigger trajectory of Britt-Marie's story. However, I was left unsure whether there was a real future for her, or whether this was a blank wall that closed off any need for a future narrative for her. My only sadness was that, while Britt-Marie's personal journey had found a resolution, I was left wondering what would happen in Borg and to Borg?Once again, I enjoyed, not only the humour and the story but also the writing. The translation was superb, at least, from the point of view of a mono-lingual English reader. Obviously, this book is not set in England, but I did not feel that I was peering at the story across an almost unbridgeable gulf of culture and language. As I have said many times before, a native speaker would not read this as a 'foreign' novel, so a reader of a good translation should share the same experience, even as they are aware that they are reading about another place and culture.I would plead with those who might dislike this, not to expect the author to write as if each book is going to be a repeat or even a clone of a previous book. The author is relatively new to the trade and admits to having learned a lot. Quite apart from that, there is no rule that says he must confine himself to a single genre or style. If you are looking for single-genre, predictable, work, perhaps you should go elsewhere, if like me, you like this author, then take him for who he is (as he seems to accept his characters) and enjoy the journey.