Author Guide · Swedish Fiction
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Before he published a novel, Fredrik Backman was a Swedish columnist and blogger who wrote posts about his own pet peeves under the heading “I am a man called Ove”. The character became Ove, a 59-year-old widower who drives a Saab, and A Man Called Ove (2012) turned into one of the most widely read Swedish novels of its decade: more than 2.8 million copies in the United States alone, two Academy Award nominations for the Swedish film, and a Hollywood remake with Tom Hanks. Backman, born in 1981, has since written about a seven-year-old girl and her grandmother, a hockey town in the forest and a hostage drama at an apartment viewing. His website puts his sales at more than 19 million copies in 46 languages. This guide covers his nine key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 9 key books · 2012–2025 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Fredrik Backman has published nine key books: eight novels and one short nonfiction book. The best known are A Man Called Ove (2012), Beartown (2016), the first of a trilogy, and Anxious People (2019). Start with A Man Called Ove; the Beartown trilogy is the place to go next if you want his longer, darker work.
Where to Start with Fredrik Backman
If you want the book that made his name
→ A Man Called Ove (2012) — the grumpy widower and his new neighbours.
If you want something bigger and darker
→ Beartown (2016) — the first book of the Beartown trilogy.
If you want a comic mystery with a heart
→ Anxious People (2019) — a failed bank robbery at an apartment viewing.
If you want his newest novel
→ My Friends (2025).
9 Fredrik Backman Books, in Order
A Man Called Ove
Ove, 59, has been pushed out of the job he held for more than thirty years, six months after the death of his wife, Sonja, and he has a plan to end his life. His new neighbours, above all the pregnant Parvaneh and her family, keep interrupting him. Flashbacks tell the story of his marriage. It was filmed in Sweden in 2015, with Rolf Lassgård, and again in English as A Man Called Otto (2022), with Tom Hanks.
Things My Son Needs to Know About the World
A short, comic book of essays addressed to his young son, about what fatherhood is actually like and what Backman fears and hopes for him. Published in Swedish in 2012, it appeared in English only in 2019, after the success of his novels.
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry
Elsa, almost eight, is closest to her eccentric grandmother, who tells her stories about an imaginary kingdom. When her grandmother dies, she leaves Elsa a series of letters of apology to deliver to people in their apartment building, and Elsa slowly learns who her neighbours really are. One of them is Britt-Marie, who gets her own novel next.
Britt-Marie Was Here
Britt-Marie, the fussy neighbour from My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, leaves her husband of forty years and takes a job in Borg, a run-down small town, where she ends up responsible for a children’s football team. A Swedish film directed by Tuva Novotny, with Pernilla August, followed in 2019.
Beartown
A declining town in the Swedish forest pins its hopes on its junior ice hockey team. After a party to celebrate a semi-final win, Maya, the fifteen-year-old daughter of the club’s general manager, is raped by the team’s star player, and the town has to choose a side. Published in the UK as The Scandal; adapted as a Swedish television series in 2020, shown by HBO.
Us Against You
The sequel to Beartown, set in the months after it. The town’s hockey club is close to being shut down while players and money move to the rival town of Hed, and local politics turn the rivalry into something more dangerous.
Anxious People
A bank robbery goes wrong and the robber runs into an apartment viewing, taking the prospective buyers hostage. A father-and-son pair of police officers try to work out what happened, and each hostage turns out to have a story of their own. Backman wrote the six-episode Netflix series adaptation (2021) himself.
The Winners
The last book of the Beartown trilogy, set about two years after the first. A violent storm hits Beartown and Hed, old characters come home, and the conflict between the two towns reaches its end.
My Friends
A famous painting shows three teenagers at the end of a long pier. When its artist dies, he leaves it to Louisa, an eighteen-year-old runaway who wants to be an artist herself, and his old friend Ted tells her on a train journey about the summer, about 25 years earlier, in which the painting was made. Backman told NPR he had seriously considered stopping before he finished it.
In What Order to Read Fredrik Backman
Most of his books stand alone, so publication order is a choice rather than a rule. Two exceptions matter. Read My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry before Britt-Marie Was Here, because Britt-Marie first appears as a neighbour in the earlier book. And read the Beartown trilogy in order: Beartown, Us Against You, The Winners.
The two novellas, And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer and The Deal of a Lifetime, are short enough to read in an evening and work as an introduction if you are unsure about the novels.
A reading path
1. A Man Called Ove (2012)
2. My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry (2013)
3. Britt-Marie Was Here (2014)
4. Anxious People (2019)
5. Beartown (2016) and the rest of the trilogy
Everything Else Fredrik Backman Published
Beyond the 9 key books: 2 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Novellas (English edition years)
2
2 books · 2016–2017
- 2016And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longera grandfather losing his memory and his grandson Noah
- 2017The Deal of a Lifetimea short story about a successful man, a young girl in hospital and a bargain
The years · 1981–2025
Quick facts about Fredrik Backman
- Known for
- Warm, funny novels about grief, loneliness and small communities, beginning with the grumpy widower of A Man Called Ove.
- 1981
- Born in Brännkyrka, Stockholm
- 2012
- A Man Called Ove
- 2016
- Beartown
- 2025
- My Friends
- Born
- 2 June 1981, Brännkyrka, Stockholm; grew up in Helsingborg
- Before novels
- Columnist for Helsingborgs Dagblad and Moore Magazine, and a blogger
- Debut
- A Man Called Ove, 2012
- Sales
- More than 19 million copies in 46 languages, according to his website
- Family
- Married to Neda Shafti Backman since 2009; two children
- Lives
- Stockholm
The red mark is 2012: A Man Called Ove, his first novel and still his best known.
How Fredrik Backman Writes: Small Worlds, Big Feelings
Backman builds each book around a small, closed world: one street in A Man Called Ove, one apartment building in My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, one hockey town in Beartown, one apartment during a hostage crisis in Anxious People. He has said that keeping the setting small lets him go deeper into the emotions of the people in it.
His characters are composites. “I steal little things from a lot of people, and I pour that into a character until that character is real for me,” he told Publishers Weekly in 2020. The comedy usually comes first and the grief underneath: loss, loneliness and suicide recur across his books, and he has spoken openly about his own anxiety and depression and about a close friend’s suicide when he was about twenty.
His narrators talk directly to the reader, foreshadow what is coming and pause for short general observations about people, which is why his books are so widely quoted. The Beartown trilogy uses the same voice for much harder material, a rape and its aftermath in a town that protects its team.
Frequently asked questions about Fredrik Backman’s books
How many books has Fredrik Backman written?
Nine key books, all on this page: eight novels, from A Man Called Ove (2012) to My Friends (2025), and one short nonfiction book, Things My Son Needs to Know About the World (2012). He has also published two novellas, listed separately above.
What are Fredrik Backman’s books in order?
A Man Called Ove (2012), Things My Son Needs to Know About the World (2012), My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry (2013), Britt-Marie Was Here (2014), Beartown (2016), Us Against You (2017), Anxious People (2019), The Winners (2021) and My Friends (2025). The years are those of the first Swedish editions.
Where should I start with Fredrik Backman?
A Man Called Ove. It is his first novel, the one that made his name, and it shows his mix of comedy and grief most clearly. If you would rather start with something darker, begin the Beartown trilogy with Beartown.
What is Fredrik Backman’s most famous book?
A Man Called Ove (2012). It sold more than 2.8 million copies in the United States alone by 2020, according to his US publisher, and was filmed twice: in Swedish in 2015 and as A Man Called Otto (2022), with Tom Hanks.
What order should I read the Beartown books in?
Beartown (2016), Us Against You (2017) and The Winners (2021). Each picks up after the last, so read them in that order. Beartown was published in the UK as The Scandal.
Is A Man Called Otto the same story as A Man Called Ove?
Yes. A Man Called Otto (2022) is the American film adaptation of the novel, moved to the United States, with Tom Hanks as the renamed Otto. The Swedish film A Man Called Ove (2015), with Rolf Lassgård, was nominated for two Academy Awards, for Best Foreign Language Film and for Best Makeup and Hairstyling.
Which Fredrik Backman books have been adapted?
A Man Called Ove (Swedish film, 2015; A Man Called Otto, 2022), Britt-Marie Was Here (Swedish film, 2019), Beartown (television series, 2020) and Anxious People (Netflix series, 2021, written by Backman himself).
Do you need to read My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry before Britt-Marie Was Here?
It helps. Britt-Marie is a neighbour in the earlier novel, and Britt-Marie Was Here follows her after she leaves her husband. The second book can be read alone, but you meet her first in the first.
Are Fredrik Backman’s books banned in Russia?
Restricted in practice rather than formally banned, according to the available reporting. According to a 2025 University of Gothenburg research event, after Russia’s 2022 ban on “propaganda” for non-traditional relationships his novels were sold there in plastic wrapping with a warning text, few shops stocked them, and The Winners could barely be distributed.
Is Fredrik Backman still alive?
Yes. He was born on 2 June 1981 and lives in Stockholm with his wife, Neda Shafti Backman, and their two children. His most recent novel is My Friends (2025).
Footnotes
- Fredrik Backman — Wikipedia
- A Man Called Ove (novel) — Wikipedia
- About Fredrik Backman — fredrikbackman.com
- People Are Strange — Publishers Weekly, 2020
- Bestselling author Fredrik Backman nearly retired — NPR, 2025
- Från bästsäljare till censur — University of Gothenburg
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“I’m a pretty anxious person. That’s one of the basic traits needed to become a writer.”
— Fredrik Backman, interview with Publishers Weekly (2020)
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