Oxmoor Page Turners is a book group and meets December 12, 2017 at 6:30 p.m. We pick one title per month from various fiction and nonfiction writers. Snacks are served at each meeting. Come join us!!
Our pick for December 2017 is A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Machman.
Fredrik Backman is a Swedish forklift driver turned best-selling international writer. his very first book A Man Called Ove sold over 600,000 copies, pent 33 weeks on the best seller list, has been translated into 43 different languages and is about to be made into a movie AGAIN (…Tom Hanks remake- wha???) Not bad for first go, huh?
Backman started his writing career as an editor then moved into blogging. He wrote for a men’s magazine called Cafe (comparable to GQ or Esquire). His entries became popular and grew fan base. One of his more popular entries were when he would blog about things about his own father but would incorporate into the adventures of a fictional character of a man he named Ove. Later, with the encouragement of friends, family and friends, he would write A Man Called Ove.
Following the success of his first novel, Beckman wrote four other books:
- My grandmother asked me to tell you she’s sorry : a novel
- Britt-Marie Was Here
- And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer (a novella)
- Beartown
A Man Called Ove:
A grumpy yet loveable man finds his solitary world turned on its head when a boisterous young family moves in next door.
Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon, the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him the bitter neighbor from hell, but must Ove be bitter just because he doesn’t walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?
Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents’ association to their very foundations.