As I mentioned earlier, Fredrik Backman is a writer whose books need time to leave an aftertaste. Therefore, no matter how much I enjoy the books I’ve already read, I’ve made it a rule to give myself a break before starting a new one, even if they are interconnected.
Britt-Marie Was Here is exactly that kind of book. It tells the story of one of the characters from the novel My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry. The events of the new novel begin almost immediately after those of the previous one, although they are mostly unrelated. This is expected, as Britt-Marie is a secondary character in the first book—one you cannot forget because of her obsession with order and extreme meticulousness about every little detail. She is perceived by everyone as a “pain in the neck,” someone who is not just difficult to negotiate with but even hard to talk to.
Partly because of this character trait, I took such a long pause between the two books. I simply couldn’t convince myself that the story of this woman would interest me. Especially since my wife told me that she liked this book significantly less than A Man Called Ove and My Grandmother… But it’s always important to form your own opinion.
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