Duncan Smith. Photo / Supplied
Fredrik Backman's Anxious People tells the story of a bank robbery gone wrong. If that brief outline suggests a police procedural or gritty crime drama, you couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, Anxious People is a romp, with a cast of quirky characters, punctuated with laugh-out-loud moments as
the writer unfolds his delightful tale with wit, warmth and wisdom.
The set-up is simple: a hapless bank robber attempts to rob a bank in a small Swedish town. The bank turns out to be cashless. Stymied, the pistol-wielding robber flees. In the street he runs into a policeman, panics and, to avoid capture, heads through an open door which turns out to be a stairwell. The only way to go is up, which soon leads to him bursting, pistol in hand, into a roomful of stunned open home attendees. The non-robbery quickly evolves into a hostage situation.
The action now cuts to a father and son pair of small-town cops who have no experience dealing with hostage situations. The son is as irritated by his father as the father is protective of his son. What will they do? Google it, of course.
On the first page Backman writes that "this book is about a lot of things, but mostly about idiots". I think this acknowledgement of human frailty is reflected in the empathetic view of his characters, such as the would-be robber, whose life has been turned upside down through a series of events beyond his control. All the people taken hostage have compelling stories driven by love, fear, doubt. The great thing about the book is it's hilarious, touching and insightful with some fantastic and utterly unpredictable twists. Highly recommended.
I mostly read New Zealand fiction for work and look forward to anything by Owen Marshall, Lawrence Fearnley and Vincent O'Sullivan. Carl Nixon's The Tally Stick is a book I'd love to add to the RNZ collection of recordings. Recently I've been reacquainting myself with short stories as I compile our new podcast, The Short Story Stack. Standouts include the Steve Braunias-penned Dear Mum and the Ashleigh Young stories from her outstanding collection Can You Tolerate This?
