by Fredrik Backman, 2019, Atria Books

After reading Us Against Them by Backman, I swore I would never read another book by him as I really hated that book. I was presented with this book and decided to read it despite my prior pledge. It turned out to be delightful.

At first, I didn’t much care for he characters. They were all somewhat odd and even the author often referred to them as idiots. As the book unfolds, however and their true natures are gradually revealed, it turns out that deep down they are all pretty nice individuals. Their various hang-ups were preventing them from connecting with others and the circumstance that brings them all together forces them to make these connections.

The end result is probably a little too nice to be realistic, but it is, nevertheless, a pretty good story. The author also does a good job of tying the plot together at the end.

So Backman is redeemed after writing that perfectly worthless book, Us Against Them and I may even consider reading some other books by him. If I ever encounter another one as bad as Us Against Them again, however, that will be it between Backman and me.