A Man Called Ove

A Man Called Ove is the humorous and heartrending story of the curmudgeon next door. Ove is the kind of man who, on first making his acquaintance, you would probably shake your head, wonder what could make a man so spiteful, and then do your best to try and avoid him in the future. Ove’s approach to life is black and white. He is an obsessive rule follower and a crank. He works with his hands, follows an outdated code of masculinity, and he doesn’t understand why the world is changing around him.

Ove’s life gets turned upside down when a new family moves next door. A series of hilarious accidents follows in their wake and even while Ove shakes his head in bewilderment and his fist in rage, he can’t help but be drawn in by them.

I think everyone has or has had someone in their life who is a lot like Ove – the grandfather who rails against the price of pretty much everything, the taciturn old Uncle who sits unsociably at holiday dinners, the curmudgeonly neighbor who refuses to wave or smile when you pass by. The magic of this story is that it reveals the deep humanity that can be found underneath a harsh exterior. It is a reminder that even the most cantankerous and hard to understand people will flourish when they are loved and needed.