"My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell you She's Sorry" - Fredrik Backman

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry

Fredrik Backman

While preparing for my flight to Juneau, Alaska, I picked up this book as a sporadic moment in the checkout line. While I admit I picked it up for the wrong reasons (I happened to me upset at my mother, the grandmother of my son at the time of purchase and thought the irony was good) it turned out to be a fantastic read.

The story starts out about a seven-year-old girl (almost eight as she often points out) named Elsa. This is another reason the irony was good – my son is seven also. Her best and only friend is her eccentric grandmother of seventy-seven years of age. The bond between Elsa and her grandma is unbreakable until the unthinkable happens.

In a sudden turn of tragedy, Elsa is left without her best friend. Her grandmother passed away and Elsa was suddenly left without a friend or a reason in the world, or so she thought. Despite her grandmother being in the grave, she sends Elsa on the adventure of a lifetime where she discovers who she is and who everyone living in her apartment building really is. Fantasy becomes a reality in a blink of an eye.

This is an easy read for me, but I enjoyed the author’s wit throughout the novel. His quirky inclusions of nerdy characters like the X-men and Harry Potter made my day. Being a big X-men fan myself, his comparison of Elsa’s mother and Grandmother’s relationship to Cyclops and Wolverine’s relationship made my day.

While this was an impulse buy in the grocery line, with a 25% off sticker, it’s one of the best book purchases I’ve made in a long time. I ended up finishing it on the flight back to Anchorage. I just couldn’t put it down. I’m going to have to hunt down other books by this author!