Anxious People

Fredrik Backman’s novel *Anxious People* begins with a botched bank robbery in the small Swedish town of Södertälje, where a desperate would-be robber bursts into an apartment open house and inadvertently takes a group of strangers hostage. The novel unfolds largely through the subsequent police investigation, as two officers—father and son Jim and Jack—interview the bewildered witnesses, each of whom proves unreliable in comic and revealing ways. The hostage group is a distinctive ensemble: Zara, a bitter, sharp-tongued bank director; Roger and Anna-Lena, a retired couple who compulsively renovate apartments to avoid confronting their marriage; Julia and Ro, a young lesbian couple expecting their first child; Lennart, a man in a rabbit costume; and Estelle, an elderly widow. The apartment itself, and the failed robbery, become a device for exploring the anxieties, regrets, and hidden connections among these characters, who are all, in different ways, stuck. Backman’s structure alternates between the police interviews, the hostage drama, and interstitial meditations on human foolishness, forgiveness, and the nature of anxiety. A recurring motif is the idea that most people are doing their best despite being “idiots,” and that small kindnesses can redeem seemingly hopeless situations. The novel’s famous twist involves a reveal about the robber’s identity and the true sequence of events, but the setup hinges on mistaken assumptions and the gap between how people see themselves and how others see them. It is a character-driven comedy-drama about a bridge, a rabbit, and a group of strangers who accidentally save each other.