This novel creeps up on you a bit. It seems to be going all over the place then WHAM! all the pieces start to lock into place. I think it might be the best book I have ever read. I ma lining up to read Britt Maree Was here. I have to see what happens next.

I wasn’t sure if Fredrik Backman’s second novel would live up to his first, but I think it came pretty close. The start was a little slow and overall this one contained a little less humour and a little more heartbreak, but when the story came together it was wonderful. Judging by the title, I expected Backman to have written another book about an old person, but the story centres very much around seven-year-old Elsa, which was an interesting contrast. Unfortunately I really think Backman needs to lose the epilogue. I hate how he feels the need to add unnecessary information about characters after the story has finished. Some things should be left to the reader’s imagination. Other than that, ‘My Grandmother sends her Regards and apologises’ was a beautiful novel about healing and forgiveness that I would highly recommend, especially if you enjoyed ‘A Man called Ove’.

I absolutely loved this novel. It took me a while to get into it at first but once it did I was sucked into the story and found it to be such a beautiful and well-crafted mash-up of adult fiction with children’s fairy tales.
It’s a story about an adult world that is seen through the eyes of an almost eight year old, but told through stories of fairy tales.

The connections between the stories and real life events slowly unfold and the “treasure hunt” that Elsa’s Granny has sent her on is a real eye opener for the little girl. She comes to understand real life disasters and heartaches through the stories her Granny told her, which makes it easier for her to relate to them better. In a way, her Granny prepared her for the real world – and a world that was right under her nose all along.

It’s a heartstring puller, a tear jerker, a laugher, an exciting trip into the fantastical world of “The-Land-of-Almost-Awake.” The characters were fabulous, the theme was brilliant and the theatrical writing was quite fun to read. I could just imagine Little Elsa reading the story out as she went along. It was very imaginative and very subtle with its connections until three quarters of the way through and then it just flew by. I could NOT put it down for the life of me and that meant a very late night at the end of the book!!!

It’s a type of story (like Backman’s first novel “A Man Called Ove”) that makes you think about things – about not judging a book by its cover and yet try to understand it/them. Things could be happening in a person’s life, or have happened in a person’s life that have created the people they are today. It’s a lesson for everyone to learn about acceptance of all things different. So don’t only look once at a person and think you know everything about them just because they dress funny, act silly, have a completely different opinion to you, look twice, three times or more – get to know them or just don’t judge them and accept that they are who they are. That’s what Elsa learns in this book. She learns that the people in her building are just people with a past and that they shouldn’t be hated, mistrustful or judged. Instead the “mission” leads her on a path of understanding and accepting.

Another fantastic novel from Fredrik Backman!!! You have won over this fan once again!

Fredrik Backman’s new novel, ‘My grandmother sends her regards and apologises’ is just as delightful as ‘A man called Ove’. Although this story is told from 7 year-old Elsa’s point of view, it is a beautiful merging of the reality and difficulty of adult relationships and decisions and the make-believe world Granny has created to shield Elsa from these difficulties. I enjoyed watching Elsa grow up, with Granny teaching her to understand the world and confront her fears through fairy tales.

Elsa is described by other characters as ‘different’. She is an outsider who has no friends her own age. But if Elsa is ‘different’ then her Granny seems to be bordering on crazy. Backman’s descriptions of Granny’s behaviours are humourous and add a light heartedness to the story. The bond between Elsa and her Granny is both precious and exclusive and despite Granny’s sometimes reckless behaviours, her devotion to and protection of her granddaughter makes you love her as much as Elsa does.

Throughout the novel, Granny charges Elsa with a ‘quest’, the purpose of which Elsa gradually discovers as the novel progresses. Each of the characters in the story play an important part and are pivotal to Elsa’s ‘happily ever after’.

‘My grandmother sends her regards and apologises’ will draw you in and make you laugh and cry – often both at the same time! A delightfully clever and endearing story that I wanted to re-read the minute I had finished it!

“…storytelling is the noblest profession of all. The currency there is imagination; instead of buying something with coins you buy it with a good story. Libraries aren’t known as libraries but as ‘banks’ and every fairy tale is worth a fortune”

My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises is the second novel by Swedish blogger, columnist and author, Fredrik Backman. As with his previous bestseller, this book is flawlessly translated by Henning Koch. Every seven-year-old girl needs a superhero of their own, and Elsa (almost eight) has one: her grandmother. Unfortunately, Granny has cancer and dies just a few days before Christmas and Elsa’s eighth birthday, leaving her rudderless. But before she left, Granny charged Elsa with a mission: a treasure hunt of sorts, involving letters of apology to be delivered to some of the many people Granny has offended over the years. Elsa may feel overwhelmed by her task, but Granny made her a knight in the Land-of-Almost-Awake, so she tries to be brave and fearless. And after a while, Elsa realises that Granny has equipped her with what she needs to face the future without her.

Backman has peopled his novel with a wonderful cast of characters, often quirky yet familiar and appealing for all their faults and imperfections. The banter between the characters is enjoyable and often laugh-out-loud funny. Backman’s plot is so cleverly devised that the reader can see events from the perspective of a seven (nearly eight) year old who believes in the fantasy world her granny has created for her, and from the point of view of the adults around her. And that fantasy world, the Land-of-Almost-Awake, is a wonderful thing in itself, with its parallels in the lives, loves and losses of the real-world characters.

Backman given his characters many words of wisdom and insightful observations: “People who have never been hunted always seem to think there’s a reason for it. ‘They wouldn’t do it without a cause, would they? You must have done something to provoke them.’ As if that was how oppression works” and “…sometimes the safest place is when you flee to what seems the most dangerous” and “When it comes to terror, reality’s got nothing on the power of imagination” are examples. He also gives Elsa some excellent retorts to adult statements: for ‘It’s complicated.’ Elsa has ‘Yes, until someone explains it to you!’ and for ‘It’s hard to help those who don’t want to help themselves’ she cleverly objects ‘Someone who wants to help himself is possibly not the one who’s most in need of other people’s help’.

Backman’s second novel is another winner, and readers will be eager to know what he can come up with next. Funny, sad and truly heartwarming.

Fredrick Backman is fast becoming our favourite author. We loved A Man called Ove last year and this is every bit as good. A phenomenal story about little Elsa and her relationship with her grandmother. This will have you laughing and crying and rereading phrases and paragraphs again and again. And once it finishes you will be devastated to leave the world of Elsa, a little girl who sees things a little differently and so much more wonderfully.