Tady byla Britt-Marie – Backman Fredrik (2016)

A novel about how people get lost, fall in love, and kick everything that is round. The nicest thing you can say about the village of Borg is that it lies by the road. Someone once said about Britt-Marie that she is a passive-aggressive, slow, and whiny old woman. And that's not nice at all – although perhaps not entirely untrue. After forty years of marriage, Britt-Marie left the city and her cheating husband and came to Borg. Borg was hit by a financial crisis, leaving behind only "For Sale" signs and a pizzeria that smells of beer. Britt-Marie hates football. Football is the only thing left in Borg. This doesn't look like the beginning of a beautiful friendship, that's for sure. But when the children from the Borg football team need a coach so desperately that they ultimately decide to accept anyone, details like the fact that she really, really doesn't want to be a coach don't matter to them. Here was Britt-Marie is a novel about what it’s like to have prejudices (not that Britt-Marie has any, of course), about arranging cutlery in the right order (forks, knives, spoons, in that order, but Britt-Marie doesn’t insist on it!) and about nature by the roadside. It’s a story about second chances, first digs, and that baking soda…