2021
•
Fredrik Backman
Summary
Taken hostage by a failed bank robber while attending an open house, eight anxiety-prone strangers--including a redemption-seeking bank director, two couples who would fix their marriages, and a plucky octogenarian--discover their unexpected common traits.
Page 62: Perhaps you, too, have children, in which case you'll know that you're frightened the whole time, frightened of not knowing everything and of not having the energy to do everything and of not coping with everything. " Page 62: In the end we actually get so used to the feeling of failure that every time we don't disappoint our children it leaves us feeling secretly shocked. Page 64: And that's the weirdest thing about being someone's parent. Not just a bank robber parent, but any parent : that you are loved in spite of everything that you are. Page 64: We give those we love nicknames, because love requires a word that belongs to us alone." Page 64: You probably have someone in your life whom you'd do something stupid for." Page 65: Because how happy can anyone really be, all the time? How could there be time for that? Mostly we're just trying to get through the day." Page 67: The truth of course, is that if people really were as happy as they look on the internet, they wouldn't spend so much damn time on the internet, because no one who's having a really good day spends half of it taking pictures of themselves. Anyone can nurture a myth about their life if they have enough manure, so if the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence, that's probably because it's full of shit." Page 120: Some people accept that they will never be free of their anxiety, they just learn to carry it. She tried to be one of them. She told herself that was why you should always be nice to other people, even idiots, because you never know how heavy their burden is. " Page 121: People want to be good. Deep down. Kind. The problem , of course , is that it isn't always possible to be kind to idiots, because they're idiots. " Page 209: Have you ever held a three year old by the hand on the way home from preschool? You're never more important than you are then." Page 238: "I don't think we agree about everything, but I have a feeling He knows I'm doing the best I can. And I think maybe He knows I work for Him, because I try to help people.' if anyone asked her to sum up her view of the world, she always quoted Martin Luther: 'Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree." Page 240: 'We can't change the world, and a lot of the time we can't even change people. No more than one bit at a time. So we do what we can to help whenever we get the chance, sweetheart. We save those we can. We do our best. Then we try to find a way to convince ourselves that that will just have to ... Be enough. So we can live with our failures without drowning." Page 246: Nothing is easier for people who never do anything themselves than to criticize someone who actually makes an effort. " Page 247: Boats that stay in the harbour are safe, sweetheart, but that's not what boats were built for." Page 290: He says you end up marrying the one you don't understand. Then you spend the rest of your life trying. " Page 291: "you have to live your life in such a way that you become friends with death" Page 295: He said you don't have to lead by telling other people what to do, you can lead by that letting them do what they're capable of instead. So I tried to be a teacher more than a boss. I know people find it hard to believe of me, but I'm not a bad teacher. When I retired, two of my staff said they hadn't realized I was actually their boss until they heard the speech thanking me for my work. A lot of people would probably have taken that as an insult, but I thought it was ... Nice. If you can something for someone in such a way that they think they managed it all on their own, then you've done a good job." Page 302: She's my everyday... Ijke the everyday" Page 327: You don't have to prove anything to Anna Lena. You don't have to prove anything to anyone any more. You're good enough. " Page 339 : But I might at least be able to show them you take responsibility for your actions. " Page 341: She made it her job to defend the weakest : the homeless, migrants, even criminals. Because somewhere in the Bible Jesus says something like : "I was hungry and you gave me food, I was homeless and you looked after me, I was sick and you cared for me, I was in prison and you visited me." And then He says something like, what we do for the weakest among us, we also do for Him. And she took everything so damn literally, my wife. That's why she kept causing trouble " Page 350: Sometimes I think that when you live together for a very long time, and have children together, life is a bit like climbing trees. Up and down, up and down, you try to cope with everything, be good, you climb and climb and climb, and you hardly ever see each other along the way. You don't notice that when you're young, but everything chances when you have children, and sometimes it feels like you hardly ever see the person you married any more. You're parents and teammates, first and foremost, and being married slips.." Page 354: All interesting people have done something really stupid at least once! Page 366: In the darkness of the auditorium they hold hands. For Anna Lena it feels like coming home, and for Roger, like being good enough" Page 370: Yes, I'm happy, Zara. Not all the time, but I've learned you don't have to be happy all the time. " Page 371: Not knowing is a good place to start." Page 372: I've learned that it helps to talk about it. Page 379: She and their dad had at least got something right, because the girls were capable of admitting when they were wrong, and of forgiving others when they got things wrong. " Page 382: You're a good mum , Mum. Don't worry so much. It's okay" Page 386: The truth, there isn't any. All we've managed to find out about the boundaries of the universe is that it hasn't got any, and all we know about God is that we don't know anything. So the only thing a mhm who was priest demanded of her family was simple : that we do our best. We plant an apple tree today, even if we know the world is going to be destroyed tomorrow." Page 390: We're trying to be grown up and love each other and understand how the hell you're supposed to insert USB leads. We're looking for something to cling on to, something to fight for, something to look forward to. We're doing all we can to teach our children how to swim. We have all of this in common, yet most of us remain strangers, we never know what we do to each other, how your life is affected by mine." Page 390: But when you get home this evening, when this day is over and the night takes us, all yourself a deep breath. Because we made it though this day as well. There'll be another one along tomorrow."
