My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Stick with it- eventually you'll appreciate it. There are lots of things that don't make sense or in no way will you enjoy the people. But Fredrik Backman has this amazing ability to turn the seemingly horrible people into realistic people with humane motivations, even if it doesn't appear that way. In this particular story, there is a hostage situation. As the book progresses, there are several things that slowly turn your negative perceptions of people (once you get to know who they all are- there are a lot of characters in the book). And I fully believe there is at least one of them in the book that you can relate to in some way. It's not a classic book, but it does make you laugh, feel sad, and all those in-between feelings.