“We don’t have a plan, we just do our best to get through the day, because there’ll be another one coming along tomorrow.”–Frederik Backman, Anxious People

Real estate open houses are generally fairly staid and predictable. That is not the case in this story when a bank robber crashes the open house and mistakenly creates a hostage situation. Among the hostages is an older couple who buys fixer-upper homes to repair them but whose marriage is in desperate need of repair, a young couple expecting a baby who constantly disagree, a successful bank director whose career has consumed her life, an optimistic real estate agent still hoping to make a deal, an elderly woman who isn’t afraid of much anymore, and a mystery man locked in the bathroom. Add in a father/son police duo and it is a recipe for disaster, yet these individuals manage to come together despite the outside pressure of the authorities and the press.

Backman’s well written and clever novel illustrates that even in anxious times, the antidote is friendship, hope, forgiveness, and grace.

Content Advisory: Language, suicide