'I was slipping into despair': Jane Fonda finds hope, purpose in climate change activismīook review: Ruth Ware brings chills with isolated locked door mystery 'One by One'īut nothing is what it seems: not the bank robber’s identity, or the toy gun that’s real, or the man in the bathroom wearing only underpants and a costume rabbit’s head, or that balcony view of the suicide bridge connecting several characters. Grandmotherly 87-year-old Estelle seems biased. Contemptuous Zara is a well-off bank manager who prefers economics to people and, not surprisingly, is depressed and lonely. Pregnant lesbian couple Julia and Ro are panicking at the thought of parenthood. Befuddled, with no hostage-case experience, they Google what to do.Ĭaptive in the apartment? Anna-Lena and Roger are a retired couple who flip apartments to keep their fraying marriage intact. Staking out the hostage stalemate are two comically bumbling local police officers –father-and-son team, Jim and Jack, both decent guys. Though unlike in “Ove,” no one here is lovable or even likable – not at first. The best-selling Swedish author of “ Beartown” and “ A Man Called Ove,” Backman is a master of writing delightful, insightful, soulful, character-driven narratives. Sobbing, the failed bank robber apologizes, “I’m having quite a complicated day here!” And so is everyone. This locked-in mystery takes place mostly inside that apartment as eight diverse, peculiar people – strangers checking out an apartment for sale – suddenly personify the “anxious” in the book’s title.
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