People said Ove saw the world in black and white. But she was color. All the color he had.
Few authors capture the beauty and heartbreak of everyday life quite like Fredrik Backman. Known for his heartfelt storytelling and unforgettable characters, Backman’s novels explore love, loss, community, and the quiet moments that define us. Whether you’re new to his work or looking to revisit some of your favourites, this guide at What We Reading will walk you through the best Fredrik Backman books in order – from his beloved debut A Man Called Ove to the powerful Beartown trilogy and beyond. Reading Fredrik Backman’s books in order allows you to experience his evolving voice and recurring themes of humanity, forgiveness, and connection. We’re curating his most impactful stories, ranked and organised to help you choose which Fredrik Backman book to read first, and what to pick up next. If you love emotional, thought-provoking fiction, these novels deserve a spot on your shelves.
A Man Called Ove (2012)
Where else could we begin our list of the best Fredrik Backman books than with his 2012 global bestseller, A Man Called Ove? Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon, the sort of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has strict principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. He’s been dubbed the neighbour from hell by his community. But, behind his cranky exterior is a story of intense sadness.
So, when one November morning, a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters moves in next door and accidentally flattens Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendships, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will transform one cranky old man and a local residents’ association to their very foundations.
Check Out The Best Books Like A Man Called Ove
Anxious People (2019)
Looking at real estate isn’t normally a life-or-death situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes a group of strangers hostage. The captives include a recently retired couple who relentlessly hunt down fixer-uppers to avoid the painful truth that their own marriage can no longer be repaired. There’s a wealthy banker who has been too busy making money to care about other people, and a young couple who are about to have their first child but can’t seem to agree on anything. Throw into the mix a steely eighty-seven-year-old and a mysterious man locked in the bathroom, and you have the worst group of hostages in the world.
Each of them carries a lifetime of grievances, hurts, secrets, and passions that are primed to boil over. As the authorities surround the premises, these reluctant allies will reveal surprising truths about themselves and set in motion a string of events so unexpected that they can hardly explain what happens next. Humorous, compassionate, and wise, Anxious People is one of the best Fredrik Backman books about the power of friendship, forgiveness, and hope.
Check Out The Best Books Like Anxious People
Beartown (Beartown #1) (2016)
People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever-encroaching trees. However, down by the lake, there is an old ice rink, built generations ago by the men who founded the town. The team’s junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semi-finals, and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys.
Having such a burden is a heavy load to bear, and it soon proves to be the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatised and a whole town in turmoil. Accusations are made, leaving no resident unaffected. The first novel in Backman’s acclaimed Beartown trilogy, Beartown explores the hopes that bring communities together, the secrets that rip them apart, and the courage it takes for an individual to go against the grain.
Beartown Book Series In Order:
- Beartown (2016) – Beartown #1
- Us Against You (2017) – Beartown #2
- The Winners (2022) – Beartown #3
Check Out The Best Books Like Beartown
My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She’s Sorry (2013)
Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is seventy-seven and crazy – as she is standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintballs-at-strangers crazy. She is also Elsa’s best and only friend. At night, Elsa takes refuge in her grandmother’s stories, in the Land-of-Almost Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas, where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal. When Elsa’s grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologising to people she has wronged, Elsa’s greatest adventure gets underway.
Her grandmother’s instructions lead her to an apartment building full of drunks, monsters, attack dogs, and old crones, but also to the truth about fairy tales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other. My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry is told with the same comic accuracy and beating heart as all the other best Fredrik Backman novels. It is a story of life and death, and one of the most important human rights: the right to be different.
My Friends (2025)
Most people don’t spot them. Three figures sit at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Louisa has spotted them and is determined to find out the story of these three individuals. Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier. These lost souls find in one another a reason to face each day, a reason to dream, and a reason to love.
Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will be unexpectedly placed in the care of eighteen-year-old Louisa. She embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn how the painting came to be, and decides what to do with it. The closer she comes to the painting’s origins, the more nervous she becomes about what she’ll find.
Britt-Marie Was Here (2014)
Britt-Marie can’t stand mess. A disorganised cutlery drawer ranks highly on her unforgivable sin list. She is not one to judge others. It’s just that sometimes people interpret her helpful suggestions as criticisms, which is certainly not her intention. But, hidden inside the socially-awkward, fussy busybody is a woman who has more imagination, bigger dreams, and a warmer heart that anyone around her realises.
When Britt-Marie walks out on her cheating husband and has to fend for herself in the miserable backwater town of Borg, she finds work as a caretaker of a soon-to-be-demolished recreation centre. The fastidious Britt-Marie soon finds herself being drawn to the daily doings of her fellow citizens. Most alarming of all, she’s handed the impossible task of leading the supremely untalented children’s soccer team to victory. In this small town of misfits, can Britt-Marie find a place where she truly belongs?
And Every Morning The Way Home Gets Longer And Longer (2015)
And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer is a Fredrik Backman book that tells the moving story of an elderly man’s struggle to hold on to his most precious memories, and his family’s efforts to care for him, even as they must find a way to let go. With all the same charm of his bestselling full-length novels, this snappy short story once again shows Backman at his best with his intimate understanding of human nature and compassion for people in different circumstances.
The Answer Is No (2024)
Lucas knows the perfect night entails three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. After all, why complicate things when he’s happy alone? One day, the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike.
They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally. Told in Backman’s singular, witty style with sharply drawn characters and relatable antics, The Answer is No is a laugh-out-loud portrait of a man struggling to keep to himself in a world that won’t leave him alone.
The Deal Of A Lifetime (2017)
A father and son are seeing each other for the first time in years. The father has a story to share before it’s too late. He tells his son about a courageous little girl lying in a hospital bed a few miles away. As he talks about this plucky young girl, the father also reveals more about himself: his triumphs in business, his failures as a parent, his past regrets, his hopes for the future.
Now, on a cold winter’s night, the father has been given an unexpected chance to do something remarkable that could change the destiny of the little girl he hardly knows. But before he can make the deal of a lifetime, he must find out what his own life has actually been worth, and only his son can reveal that answer. With humour and compassion, Fredrik Backman’s The Deal of a Lifetime reminds us that life is a fleeting gift, and our legacy rests in how we share that gift with others.
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
