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Ove is fifty-nine, a widower who inspects his street every morning for rule-breakers, and when Fredrik Backman’s first novel begins he is planning to kill himself. The new family moving in next door keeps getting in the way. A Man Called Ove came out in Sweden in 2012 and has been filmed twice, in Swedish in 2015 and in English, with Tom Hanks, as A Man Called Otto. Backman, born in Stockholm in 1981 and raised in Helsingborg, was a blogger and magazine columnist before he wrote it. Since then he has written a grandmother’s fairy tales, a hockey town’s rape case in Beartown (2016) and a hostage drama at a flat viewing in Anxious People (2019). My Friends appeared in English in May 2025. The ten writers below share his territory: lonely people, the communities that save or fail them, and grief told with jokes.
By Lisanne Swart · 10 authors · Warm fiction · Swedish storytelling · Updated October 2026
Quick answer
If you love Fredrik Backman, start with Jonas Jonasson, whose The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared (2009) is another Swedish comedy about a stubborn old man. Rachel Joyce’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (2012) and Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine (2017) follow lonely people coaxed back into life. Further down are the Victorian who invented the redeemed curmudgeon, and a writer who refuses to soften her difficult heroine.
10 authors like Fredrik Backman
Where to start if you loved Fredrik Backman
If you loved A Man Called Ove, read Jonas Jonasson.
The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared: a stubborn Swede, a suitcase of money, a century of history.
If you loved My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, read Tove Jansson.
The Summer Book: a girl, her grandmother and one island summer.
If you loved Beartown, read Liane Moriarty.
Big Little Lies: a close community, a violent secret and who knew what.
If you loved Anxious People, read Richard Osman.
The Thursday Murder Club: misfits, a murder and a great deal of talk.
If you want more Fredrik Backman, read him in order.
Start with A Man Called Ove (2012), then Britt-Marie Was Here (2014) and the Beartown trilogy: Beartown (2016), Us Against You (2017) and The Winners (2021). My Friends (2025) is his newest novel.
Frequently asked questions about authors like Fredrik Backman
Who writes like Fredrik Backman?
Jonas Jonasson, Rachel Joyce and Gail Honeyman are the closest matches. All three write lonely, stubborn people drawn back into life by others, with comedy and grief side by side.
What should I read after A Man Called Ove?
Jonas Jonasson’s The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared (2009) for another stubborn Swedish old man, or Rachel Joyce’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (2012) for a quiet retired man who sets out on foot.
What books are like Beartown?
Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies (2014), in which a close community slowly reveals a violent secret, and Kent Haruf’s Plainsong (1999), about a small town that judges and occasionally rescues its own.
Does Fredrik Backman have a new book?
His most recent novel is My Friends, published in English by Atria in May 2025 and in Swedish as Mina vänner in August 2025. It follows a teenager, Louisa, searching for the story behind a famous painting, and won the Goodreads Choice Award for Readers’ Favorite Fiction.
Which Fredrik Backman book should I read first?
A Man Called Ove (2012) is the usual starting point. Start with Beartown (2016) if you want something darker, or Anxious People (2019) for his most comic plot.
Is Fredrik Backman like Jonas Jonasson?
Partly. Both are Swedish and write comic novels about stubborn old men; Jonasson is more farcical and political, while Backman goes deeper into grief and loneliness.
Sources
List last reviewed 31 October 2026.
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