A Man Called Ove By Fredrik Backman

All you need is Ove.

At first sight, Ove is almost certainly the grumpiest man you will ever meet, a curmudgeon with staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. He thinks himself surrounded by idiots—and no wonder, with all those happy joggers and shop assistants who talk in code, not to mention the perpetrators of the vicious coup d’état that ousted him as chairman of his neighborhood residents’ association. People think him bitter. But must a man be bitter just because he doesn’t walk around with a smile plastered on his face all the time, doesn’t always tell people what they want to hear, and remains silent when he has nothing in particular to say?

Ove’s well-ordered, solitary world gets a shake-up one November morning with the appearance of new neighbors—a chatty young couple and their two boisterous daughters—who announce their arrival by accidentally flattening Ove’s mailbox with their U-Haul. What follows is a funny and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unlikely friendships, and a community’s unexpected reassessment of the one person they thought they had all figured out.

A word-of-mouth bestseller that has caused a sensation across Europe, Fredrik Backman’s irresistible novel about the angry old man next door is an uplifting exploration of the unreliability of first impressions and a gentle reminder that life is sweeter when it is shared with other people