Anxious People

Fredrik Backman begins with a failed bank robber who accidentally takes apartment-viewing strangers hostage, then quietly reveals that the story is really about a decade-earlier suicide from a bridge and the ripple of consequence that followed. The structural ingenuity is matched by Backman's warmth — he is one of the few writers who can hold genuine tragedy and absurdist comedy in the same paragraph without either collapsing. The novel's central argument, that most people are simply doing their imperfect best to connect with one another, lands with force precisely because it is earned rather than asserted. A content note for sensitive readers: the suicide subplot is central and handled with empathy but without evasion. The whimsical tone occasionally sits uneasily against the gravity of the subject. A New York Times number-one bestseller and now a Netflix series — the popularity is deserved.