Anxious People

**Trigger Warning: Suicide and depression**

By: Fredrik Backman

4/5 🌉

This is a book about a bridge. Well, not really a bridge... a man on a bridge. Except it's not really about the man on the bridge. The man on the bridge jumped a decade earlier. No, this is a story about other people a decade later, but it's still about a bridge. Well, maybe it's more about the bank robbery hostage situation... but, it's still also about a bridge.

If this summary annoyed you, then the writing style of Anxious People is definitely not for you. Following the story line pattern of Love Actually, Anxious People is about ten random people who are all connected in more ways than the reader would think. At a glance, it's about a hostage situation, but on a deeper level, it's about depression and anxiety. It's about suicide and the ripple effect of choosing to take one's own life. It's about selfishness and selflessness at the same time. It's a book about nothing, yet it's about life. It's a very strange contradiction to itself.

For me, Anxious People was a little difficult to get into. I could put it down, but I wasn't able to not finish it. At times, I was bored and slightly annoyed, and at others, I was entirely intrigued and breezing through the pages. It wasn't until about 100 pages in that I felt the story really picked up. This is one of the only translated works I've read, so I wonder if that's why the writing style threw me off a little?

Nevertheless, it was a beautifully written story. I loved how every person, strangers it appeared, was connected in some way. I loved that it showed the importance of kindness and listening. This book shows that even the smallest actions can create a ripple effect. I can see why this book was considered one of the best of 2020.

In the end, I'm having trouble truly explaining my feelings for this book. It was beautiful and well-written, so I will leave you with a quote from the book: "That's the power of literature, you know, it can act like little love letters between people who can only explain their feelings by pointing at other people's."