Readers’ Voice

Once again, I am left in awe of Backman’s ability to describe characters using just a few words—words that make you feel as though you know them personally. *My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry* is a perfect intertwining of the stories of ordinary neighbors—the kind we’ve all had—who, just like the rest of us, possess a past that explains why they are the way they are today.
Every character contributes significantly to the narrative, and you will surely find familiar figures from your own memories to associate them with. Little Elsa—who is almost eight—and her grandmother will transport you back to happy childhood memories through their incredibly rich imaginations; it is truly remarkable how the grandmother teaches her granddaughter about life’s realities using the fairy tales she has invented.
What impresses me most is the author’s imagination and his command of language (I must also highly commend the translator, Lyubomir Gizdov, for a job perfectly done).
I’d love for you to share in the comments below if you share this same enthusiasm for Fredrik Backman and his works! 😀

Warmth. Laughter. Tears. Stories of childhood summers while the fate of a painting hangs in the balance. Love. Art. After this book you’ll understand why people stand in front of paintings in galleries for so long. You might even feel like calling an old friend. However long it is, it will always feel too short to me.

For when you’re all grown up but want to feel the joy of magic you felt as a child again. This story took me back to the days when I played at being a fairy, plants could talk, I controlled the wind and summoned the rain. A very cosy story with a little romance, a little danger and no unnecessary scenes. Perfect for Winx fans 😉

A quiet story about a supposedly ordinary concierge who is not to be underestimated. She shares reflections and stories about small joys, friendship, social masks, prejudice and everyday life while living through something like a love story, in her own way. For me, Renée’s story is not as gripping as Renée herself: wordy, but without a wasted word; well-read, but with no need to show it. Your vocabulary will thank you for meeting Renée.

Riveting. Lessons and a craft passed down from grandmother to granddaughter evolve into a family saga centered on the Armenian Genocide—a narrative that grows ever deeper. At a certain point, you become so absorbed that you even forget how it all began. The stories are interwoven with such skill—it even engages your sense of smell, firing up your imagination! 😉

The perfect balance of spice and plot. The bond between the main characters is incredibly strong and passionate, layered with a bit of backstory and signs of fate, and it develops at a pace that gives you exactly what you want to read at exactly the right moment. The events are tightly connected and no detail is missing. The gem of this series, without a doubt, is Kingfisher, who looks like a jerk to everyone around him but actually sacrifices almost everything to protect his people, and whose lines leave the biggest impression. The heroine still has room to grow, but she has a very interesting past. The real story starts after the first few chapters.

The ideal sequel to Quicksilver. There is a little more worldbuilding than spice, but once again the balance between spice and plot is perfect. There are scenes where the main characters are physically apart, which lets us see how they act and make decisions on their own. This balances out the chapters where they are inseparable and must work in unison to survive, and it shows us the depth of their bond. In this book, the events that befall their world are fully connected to the previous one.