Britt-Marie is a 63 year old woman who finds out that her husband has had a mistress and a heart attack when said mistress calls her to inform her of the heart attack. Britt-Marie leaves him and goes to the unemployment office, but her main goal is not just to support herself financially. She knows that having a job means if she dies, someone will notice. Like the main character in A Man Called Ove, Britt-Marie is very structured and particular about the way things should be done. She is sent to a town called Borg for a temporary three week assignment at the rec center. The first two people she meets there are Vega and Omar, two of the children who live in Borg and spend most of their spare time playing soccer (despite the fact that the town no longer has a soccer field).

Released this book into a Little Free Library - happy travels!

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Woohoo!! I got my daily bookcrossing alert email, and went hunting for this book, since the LFL in 4S Ranch is only 10 minutes from my home. This is my first time catching a hunted book!!! Thanks, silverstarry! I've read Beartown and Us Against You, adored them both. I can't wait to read this one.

I finally got around to reading this book. It took a bit to get into the story, but then I thoroughly enjoyed it all the way to the last page. Britt-Marie is quite an unusual character. I loved the way she moves to Borg on her own and ends up transforming the town from a sleepy lost place where there is no hope to a place people care about again. The characters in the story were endearing, like Somebody, Sven, Banks, Vega, Omar, Sami, Pirate, the girl at the unemployment office.... Britt-Marie even makes friends with a rat. After her previous life with her parents and then with Kent, Borg is the first place where she seems to have a positive effect and where people care that she is there. She grows and learns throughout the story. The entire story is gratifying, sad, funny, and memorable.

This book is going traveling on a bookray to:

1) dabercro
2) Aberpeter
3) djf1968
4) dacejav

Bookcrossing is the practice of leaving a book in a public place for someone else to "catch". Why? Cuz books just wanna have fun! Enjoy the serendipity and head over to the bookcrossing.com website to let me know you caught this book!

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The book is here.

An enjoyable read. Britt-Marie is an endearing character.

Bookray sent to Aberpeter in WA.

The book is here. Will start it soon.

This is my first Fredrik Backman book and I loved it. Now I can see why his other books are so popular... I will have to keep my eye out for them (and add them to my wishlist).

I love the character of Britt-Marie. I would have a hard time with her in real life, but as a character in a book, she is very endearing. She is very rigid and literal to her approach in life. She keeps lists, she is very persistent on maintaining those lists, and is very focused on what she needs to accomplish that she cannot relate to other people nor have any empathy for them. After leaving her husband and taking a temporary job in a small town, Britt-Marie's world has been flipped upside down. She deals with her stressors and lack of control by compulsively cleaning. She soon becomes entwined with the local youth soccer team and anyone else in town who frequents the town recreation center/pizzeria/post office. Britt-Marie slowly adapts to the new people in her life and makes new friends for herself (not acquaintances through her husband). These new relationships bring about changes in Britt-Marie as she reflects on who she was and who she can be.

Thank you dabercro and judygreeneyes for the slight detour to the original ray so I could read the book. I will be reaching out to djf1968 for an address and will get this bookray back on its original course.

on its way to djf1968

Britt-Marie is here, as it were. I've got a couple of books ahead of this in my queue, but will get it back out ASAP.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from Britt-Marie… the back cover reads like a female version of Ove. While there are certainly similarities, our heroine is her own character, and I adored watching her emerge as the story progressed. The book was written a bit before the term “self care” became a part of our vernacular, and I enjoyed how a woman who’d spent most of her life defining her worth based on how well she cared for others begin to consider her own wants and needs as well. And it was neat to watch the town of Borg come back to life in parallel with our heroine. Britt-Marie and her scrappy cast of sidekicks were well worth a week of my leisure time.

Tons of quotable moments... I love the way Backman uses language.

“An unreasonable amount of paperwork is required these days just to be a human being.”

“Britt-Marie never had to be noticed, for the simple reason that she always did everything without having to be told.”

“It’s easier to stay optimistic if you never have to clear up the mess afterwards.”

“Soccer is a curious game, because it doesn’t ask to be loved. It demands it.”

“It’s the silence that Britt-Marie struggles most of all to live with, because while immersed in silence you don’t know if anyone knows you are there.”

“He’s not an especially good drawer, far from it, and if she’d been more critical by nature she might have had reservations about what the blurred contours and irregular silhouettes were saying about the way he saw her. But at least he saw her.”

“ ‘If you can be heard then you exist,’ mutters hungover Bank, massaging her temples.”

"One morning you wake up with more life behind you than in front of you, not being able to understand how it's happened."

“At a certain age almost all the questions a person asks him or herself are really just about one thing: how should you live your life?”

“Because he needed her, and you are not alone when someone needs you.”

“You’re my sunny story, Britt-Marie.”

“I’ve never supported a team. I think I love soccer too much. Sometimes your passion for a team can get in the way of your love for the game.”

Britt-Marie is on the road again. Next stop: Delaware, on her way overseas to Georgia. Enjoy!
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