A hostage drama where the real threat is adulthood
Fredrik Backman (best known for A Man Called Ove) specializes in a specific kind of storytelling: taking an outwardly cranky or absurd group of people, locking them in a room, and peeling back their layers until you care about every single one of them.
In Anxious People, the locked room happens to be a staged apartment up for sale in Sweden. A desperate, incompetent bank robber flees into an open house, brandishing a pistol and accidentally taking eight people hostage. What follows isn't a high-stakes action thriller—it's a series of messy conversations between an elderly woman who isn't telling the whole truth, a retired couple obsessed with IKEA to avoid facing their marriage, an overworked bank director, and two expecting mothers who can't agree on a crib.
The content warning every parent needs to know
If you hand this book to a teenager, know that suicide is a major pillar of the plot. The narrative repeatedly returns to a bridge where a man jumped years prior, triggering events that affect nearly every character in the room. Backman treats mental illness and grief with warmth and care, but he doesn't sugarcoat the pain.
"We're playing a game, but life isn't a game. Life is a struggle where we try our best, but fail most of the time."
If your teen is already dealing with serious anxiety or grief, read this one first so you can gauge whether the resolution feels hopeful or overwhelming for where they are right now.
How to read it with a high schooler
For 16- and 17-year-olds who are starting to look down the barrel of adulthood, high school graduation, and big life choices, Anxious People offers a surprisingly comforting take: nobody actually knows what they're doing, and everyone is secretly winging it. It's a great book to read side-by-side with a teen to talk about grace, forgiveness, and mental health without feeling like a lecture.
