Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman

From the publisher: The bestselling author of A Man Called Ove returns with an irresistible novel about finding love and second chances in the most unlikely of places. Britt-Marie can’t stand mess. A disorganized cutlery drawer ranks high on her list of unforgivable sins. And she is not passive-aggressive. Not in the least. It's just that sometimes people interpret her helpful suggestions as criticisms, which is certainly not her intention. But hidden inside the socially awkward, fussy busybody is a woman who has more imagination,bigger dreams, and a warmer heart that anyone around her realizes. When Britt-Marie walks out on her cheating husband and has to fend for herself in the miserable backwater town of Borg she is more than a little unprepared. Employed as the caretaker of a soon-to-be demolished recreation center, the fastidious Britt-Marie has to cope with muddy floors, unruly children, and a (literal) rat for a roommate. In this small town of big-hearted misfits, can Britt-Marie find a place where she truly belongs? Funny and moving, observant and humane, Britt-Marie Was Here celebrates the unexpected friendships that change us forever, and the power of even the gentlest of spirits to make the world a better place.

I loved A Man Called Ove. Although I don’t like comparing it to Britt-Marie Was Here, it’s hard not to as the stories are similar in many ways. (We even have a rat taking the place of the Cat Annoyance.) If I didn’t know they were written by the same author, I would have thought “I’ve read this story before but Backman did it much better.”

If I did not know otherwise, I would also think that Ove is the later novel and Britt-Marie the earlier. Britt-Marie feels like a first draft of Ove, and Ove reads like the work of a more seasoned writer. The character of Ove felt like a real person to me, and I found the changes he underwent and the relationships he built completely believable. Britt-Marie does not feel like a real person, and I felt that her changes happened too quickly and not very credibly. I also found her a much less sympathetic character.

Britt-Marie also felt much more like a translation to me than did A Man Called Ove. I wondered if some phrases used multiple times made more sense in Swedish. For example, Britt-Marie often says “Ha” or “Ha. Ha.” when she is not laughing or expressing humor and this didn’t quite work for me.

I’m still glad I read Britt-Marie Was Here, as Backman’s gentle warmth still comes through in passages I enjoyed, like this one:

All her words to him are like staying in a hotel, new and curious and tentatively fumbling for switches on the wall, repeatedly turning on different lights than those she wanted to turn on. (p. 243 of the ARC)

I liked the charming 60-something policeman Sven and his many many courses to learn something new. It's nice to see books about romance and middle-aged people. I will definitely read whatever Backman writes next and recommend Britt-Marie Was Here to his fans.

I read an advance reader copy of Britt-Marie Was Here. It will be published on May 3 and will be available at the Galesburg Public Library in regular and large print.

An Inheritance of Ashes by Leah Bobet

The narrative of An Inheritance of Ashes grabbed me right away. It is hard to figure out what’s going on, but still I wanted to know. Hallie is 16. She and her older sister Marthe are trying to hold on to the family farm. Marthe is pregnant with her first child, and her husband has not returned from the far-off war he travelled to fight. Marthe and Hallie have an angry, uncommunicative relationship. Their father forced his own younger brother off the farm years ago, and now Hallie is afraid her sister will do the same to her.

The world building is, frankly, odd. It’s dystopian, but whatever returned civilization to a more primitive time happened decades ago. Now, strange, “twisted” creatures that burn whatever they touch have come into our world from another. A hero named John Balsam ended the war against them by tearing a hole through the other world, but the twisted things are still showing up on the farm.

Hallie, her neighbors, and a mysterious veteran who arrived at the farm seeking work and shelter for the winter must band together to figure out what is happening and save not only the farm but their entire community.

I found the twisted creatures on top of the dystopia a bit much. It seems unlikely that both scenarios would happen – the twisted things are never connected to whatever events crashed civilization in the first place. It might have been more effective to set the story in an unnamed primitive society rather than a fallen civilization. It just really didn’t make sense to me, but it  also didn’t bother me *that* much. I still enjoyed the story.

I liked some of the overwritten but unusual language, such as “Heron stood before me, stiff and unshaken, his peculiar grace bleeding into the very air. It wasn’t just northern manner, it was his sense of calling: the way a person held themselves high when they were devoted, without compromise, to something greater than themselves.” (p. 45 of the advance reader copy) There is some cringe-worthy dialog, especially between Hallie and the young man who wants to court her, to balance out the nice stuff.

The relentless negative relationship between Marthe and Hallie was hard to take at times, and the identity of the mysterious veteran is likely to be obvious to every reader even though it is not to the characters in the book. But I raced through this book and recommend it to readers who like dystopian coming-of-age stories. (Also, it has a gorgeous cover!)

I read an advance reader copy of An Inheritance of Ashes from netgalley.com. It will be published on October 6 and will be available at the Galesburg Public Library.