Anxious People, Fredrik Backman
Atria Books, 9/2020
Trigger Warning:
This book contains themes regarding suicide, loss of a loved one, anxiety and depression.
Plot:
“Looking at real estate isn’t usually a life-or-death situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes a group of strangers hostage… Each of them carries a lifetime of grievances, hurts, secrets, and passions that are ready to boil over. None of them is entirely who they appear to be. And all of them—the bank robber included—desperately crave some sort of rescue. As the authorities and the media surround the premises these reluctant allies will reveal surprising truths about themselves and set in motion a chain of events so unexpected that even they can hardly explain what happens next.”- Book Description
Reflection:
This was truly a bizarre book—like a tender Dog Day Afternoon, minus the sweaty urgency. It took me completely by surprise, and my opinion changed several times throughout my read. Ultimately, though, Anxious People was an insightful and poignant story that highlights the idea that though we may feel alien and separate from everyone else, there is a lot more that we have in common than we realize. It champions empathy and challenges the reader not to judge or fall back on what is expected.
Anxious People reminded me of trying to assemble IKEA furniture without having read the instructions: you have all the parts and you know what it should look like, but that isn’t enough for the pieces to make sense, just yet. When you finally get it together though, you have a streamlined and thoughtfully engineered piece of furniture. In this instance though, the disparate pieces are the individual characters with their fully realized backgrounds and private burdens and the finished furniture is our shared humanity distilled into a digestible and delightful read.
And like any piece of self-assembled furniture, you get from Anxious People what you put into it. The reader has to choose to accept the goodness and empathy of the other characters. So that when everything comes together in a perhaps unlikely way, and the book resolves happily you see it as grounded in the mundanities and struggles of everyday life. Acknowledging that while it may feel unlikely it doesn’t seem unreasonable.
If you need help, do not hesitate to call:
Suicide Prevention Hotline: (800) 273 8255
You’re not alone.












