I recently reviewed Backman’s Bear Town, and wasn’t very complimentary. But in My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She is Sorry I am once again a fan. A really lovely feel good story in the vein of A Man Called Ove.

Seven-year-old Elsa is very mature for her age. Her little brain is far and away past most kids in her class. And her friendship with her sometimes “crazy” Grandma plays a key role in Elsa’s unique way of looking at the world, even as a seven-year-old. Elsa’s grandmother tells her a story about the Land of Almost Awake, a mysterious wonderland of good and evil.

But when Elsa’s Grandmother dies, Elsa embarks on a mysterious treasure hunt orchestrated by her Grandmother before her death. A series of letters apologizing to people in her Grandmother’s life will bring Elsa to a unique understanding of the remarkable woman her Grandma was, and how the Land of Almost Awake is not a fantasy afterall. In fact it is a real place and has been right under Elsa’s nose all along.

Backman’s writing pulls at your heartstrings and you will fall in love with Elsa and her eclectic collection of companions as Elsa learns from her incredible Grandma (in life and death) how kindness and courage are the greatest strengths, especially for people who are little bit different.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Five Stars for My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrick Backman. Read last week’s review of The Silent Patient.

My current read The Delight of Being Ordinary.

I wanted to love this book.

I wanted to love it because EVERYONE else seems to love it.

I wanted to love it because I LOVED A Man Called Ove and My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She’s Sorry also by Fredrik Backman.

But, I just didn’t love it and I can’t really put my finger on why.

Bear Town is the story of a small town, a dying small town like so many small towns. But a small town with a big dream.

Bear Town is also a story of how athletes are often given a free pass in situations where the rest of us are not. How the goal of winning can create tunnel-vision and for some people lose sight of morality and truth.

Bear Town is a story of different families and how raising our children to be honest and good is the most important thing in the world.

Bear Town is depressing but also courageous – taking the reader through a violent event that tears a town apart but ultimately shows who has the courage to tell the truth.

Perhaps it was just too real for me. I’ve seen behavior like this first hand. Perhaps your experience reading Bear Town will be less visceral.

⭐️⭐️⭐️Three stars for Bear Town by Fredrik Backman. Read last week’s review of The Lowland