Britt-Marie Was Here: A Novel

I am a huge fan of this author ever since reading Beartown. It amazes me how young he is yet has his finger on the pulse of humanity so astutely. This was, for me, a thoroughly charming, engrossing novel about someone who clearly has 'issues'. She has left her former life (husband who cheated on her) to embark on being on her own. You will grow to 'understand' her. As the author occasionally tosses in information about where Britt-Marie has come from, you get a glimpse into her entire life leading up to now, you will question whether her experienced issues contributed to how she is now, or did they accelerate issues she already had embedded in her. You will form your own opinions about all the other characters. You have to remember this takes place in a tiny 'town' in Norway - things are not anything like any of us have experienced. This novel needs to be digested for exactly what it is: The journey of a very 'challenged' woman. It took my heart into another whole dimension. Bachman's incredible insight into others' 'idiosyncracies' is amazing. I think the main message for me, aside from loving the story, the interplay of the characters, the wanting to know where it all leads, is how the players 'accept' Britt-Marie's personality. I am a huge 'highlighter' of passages and though I have too many to put forth here, I shall share what I can to hopefully give you a true 'feel' of what this author portrays in his wondrous story:"Once he used to hold her hand when they slept, and she dreamed his dreams. Not that Britt-Marie didn't have any dreams of her own; it was just that his were bigger, and the one with the biggest dreams always wins in this world.""Kent said that Britt-Marie was socially incompetent, so she stayed home for another few years so he could be social on behalf of the both of them. It's not that she chose not to have any expectations, she just woke up one morning and realized they were past their sell-by date.""In the end, all she dreamed of was a balcony and a husband who did not walk on the parquet in his golf shoes, who occasionally put his shirt in the laundry basket without her having to ask him to do it, and who now and then said he liked the food without her having to ask. A home. Children who, although they weren't her own, came for Christmas in spite of everything. Or at least tried to pretend they had a decent reason not to. A correctly organized cutlery drawer. An evening at the theater every now and again. Windows you could see the world through, someone who noticed that she had taken special care with her hair. Or at least pretended to notice. Or at least let her go on pretending. Someone who came home to a newly mopped floor and a hot dinner on the table and, on the odd occasion, noticed that she had made an effort. ""She misses her balcony more than anything. You're never quite alone when you can stand on a balcony - you have all the cars and houses and the people in the streets. You're among them, but also not. That's the best thing about balconies.""It may be that a heart only finally breaks after leaving a hospital room in which a shirt smells of pizza and perfume, but it will break more readily if it has burst a few times before.""She wasn't upset about what Kent had said, because most likely he didn't even understand it himself. On the other hand she was offended that he hadn't even checked to see if she was standing close enough to hear.""Ingrid (Britt's deceased sister) was never negative. As always with people like this, it's difficult to know whether everyone loved Ingrid because she was so positive, or if she was so positive because everyone loved her. Ingrid also loved to play. As with all people like that, it's difficult to know if she was the best because she loved the games, or if she loved them because she was the best.""It's the silence that she struggles most of all to live with, because while immersed in silence you don't know if anyone knows you are there, and Winter is also the quiet season because the cold insulates people. Makes the world soundless. It was the silence that paralyzed her when Ingrid died.""All marriages have their bad sides, because all people have weaknesses. If you live with another human being you learn to handle these weaknesses in a variety of ways. For instance, you might take the view that weaknesses are a bit like heavy pieces of furniture, and based on this you must learn to clean around them. To maintain the illusion. Of course the dust is building up unseen, but you learn to repress this for as long as it goes unnoticed by guests. And then one day someone moves a piece of furniture without your say-so, and everything comes into plain view. Dirt an scratch marks. Permanent damage to the parquet floor. By then it's too late.""Societies are like people in that way. If you don't ask too many questions and don't shift any heavy furniture around, there's no need to notice their worst sides."There are two parts of the novel whereby the title of the book will come to your mind (I always enjoy finding out where titles come from) - one of which is when Britt is looking at a map of Borg on the wall - she looks at the red dot that first made her fall in love with the picture. The reason for her love of maps. It's half worn away, the dot, and the red color is bleached. Yet it's there, flung down there on the map halfway between the lower left corner and its center, and next to it is written "You are here.""Sometimes it's easier to go on living, not even knowing who you are, when at lest you know precisely where you are while you go on not knowing.""Human beings are the only animals that smile as a gesture of peace, whereas other animals show their teeth as a threat. This is perfectly understandable now; she can see the animal inside the human being.""They got married because Kant's accountant said it made sense from a 'tax-planning perspective'. She never had a plan, she hoped it would be enough if you were faithful and in love. Until the day came when it wasn't enough.""Then she rubbed the white mark on her ring finger. People who have not worn a wedding ring for almost their entire lives are unaware of how a mark like that looks. Some people take theirs off from time to time - while doing the washing-up, for instance - but she had never once taken off her ring until the day she took it off once and for all. So the white mark is permanent, as if her skin had another color when she was married. As if this is what is left of her, underneath, if your scrape off everything she turned into.""A few moments. A human being, any human being at all, has so perishingly few chances to stay right there, to let go of time and fall into the moment. And to love someone without measure.""All passion is childish. It's banal and naïve. It's nothing we learn; it's instinctive, and so it overwhelms us. Overturns us. It bears us away in a flood. All other emotions belong to the earth, but passion inhabits the universe. That is the reason why passion is worth something, not for what it gives us but for what it demands that we risk. Our dignity The puzzlement of others and their condescending, shaking heads.""She asks herself if choices or circumstances make us the sort of people we become. She wonders what takes the most out of a person: to be the kind that jumps, or the kind that doesn't? she wonders how much space a person has left in her soul to change herself, once she gets older. What people does she still have to meet, what will they see in her, and what will they make her see in herself?""One remarkable thing about communities built along roads is that you can find just as many reasons for leaving them as excuses to stay. Some people never quite stop devoting themselves to one or the other.""Morning comes to Borg with a sun that controls itself and waits respectfully on the horizon, as if wanting to give her enough time to make a last choice, and then to choose for herself for the first time."The scenes with Britt-Marie and Sven brought me to my knees - the first being when he produces a bamboo screen in order to calm her before riding in his patrol car going by townspeople. He was beyond an incredible human being. When she rides in his patrol car she reflects 'He talks all the way, just as Kent used to do when they were in the car. But it was different, because Kent always told her things, whereas the policeman asks her questions. It irritates her. You do get irritated by someone taking an interest in you when you're not used to it."Pay attention to how the author planted just one little drawing at the start of each paragraph - one that encapsulated what the most important point of that chapter was.I am still reeling from the ending. I cannot comment one bit on it. I would dearly love to know how others feel about it.

This is such an enjoyable read. A perfect gift!

When the reader first encounters Britt- Marie, she is silent and closed off...quite rigid. Through her encounters in Borg, she develops the ability to assert herself, and make choices about her future.4 out of 5 stars...I found the last chapter to be disappointing. The author doesn't really explain the choices Britt- Marie made, nor why.

I read this over three chilly get-in-your-bones rainy fall days and it couldn't have been more perfect. It's funny and silly and you have to love the characters and the town. Even though I guessed the plot line after a few pages, it didn't make the ride any less enjoyable, and I was happy to pass the book around among friends.

This is the first book I have read by Backman. I checked it out at the library. The story is so good i ordered the book. I like the character of Britt-Marie. She is obsessive, compulsive and the story tells much of a person with this particular personality. But I laughed. Britt-Marie is hilarious with her demands, outspoken, People today are so careless about what they do, how they dress, their hairstyles. She is quite opinionated. The lady hates dirt, a compulsive cleaner. As for drinks of any kind, coasters must be used. She keeps lists about tasks she must do, jobs she has finished and everything else. Coasters must be used, the table will be messed up. Cutlery drawers must always be neat and organized. Baking soda is excellent for cleaning. Britt-Marie sprinkles baking soda to absorb dirt and humidity. She has a special cleaner for windows. No other will do. This lady is sixty three years old, has never worked a job, took care of her mother, then was married for forty years, no children, step kids part time. Her husband cheated so she left. She goes to the unemployment office and demands that the young woman find her a job. But at her age and lack of experience, where is there a job? Her husband is gone on a trip on business. When he comes back she will be missed. She kept his clothes clean, cooked a good meal, the apartment was always immaculate. Fredrik travels on business, Britt-Marie will not go, she hates changes in her life. She will have a rude awakening. The young lady, after Britt-Marie's constant calling, finds her a job, a small village, run down, in the middle of nowhere.The book is set in Sweden, in a period of about three weeks. The village has many for sale signs in its building. The job Britt-Marie gets is working in the closed down town recreation center, the job only lasting three weeks. There is a pizzeria, the only place of business. A few businesses are conducted from this pizzeria. Britt-Marie's car is at the pizzeria waiting to be fixed. A big town is twelve miles away.The children of Borg play soccer, the only game they can afford to play. Borg is a poor out of the way village, but kids are full of life and mean to enjoy playing this game. Soccer is important in this story.The town cop, Sven, is taken with Britt-Marie and finds her a place to stay, a room where she can have a balcony and potted plants. This makes her happy. The landlady is crusty, rude and outspoken as is Britt-Marie. Bank has a dog and will rent to Britt-Marie until it sells. She's anxious to get rid of her home and get as far away from Borg as soon as she can.Britt-Marie gets a pet, a rat, that she treats with Snickers and talks to him like he is her psychiatrist. He lives in the rec center.Britt-Marie cleans the pizzeria, the recreation center and her renter house. Owners tell her she doesn't have to, she does, the ladies don't stop her. The owner of the pizzeria is named Somebody and is in a wheelchair.The lady gets to know characters, many of them not Swedish, down and out and becomes a more sympathetic, compassionate person who relates well to the kids and others. She loses many of her quirky ways and is not as laugh out loud. The characters around her are quirky. A fun read, but in a way sad.Everybody eats dinner at six o'clock as they should believes Britt-Marie. No excuses.

The author had been recommended by a trusted friend so I purchased three of his books at random. This was the third book that I read and it is the continuation of the life of one of the characters in another one of Backman's books. Her character is well developed. The characters are diverse, the plot is engaging and the ending had an unexpected twist. It was a fun read!

Loved this book. Good read.

I have to confess I love Fredrik Backman and have read all his books. In my humble opinion you need to read "My Grandmother sends her apologies" before this book as this is where you first meet Britt-Marie. This book is a little hard to get into but once I was I read it in one sitting. Backman has a wonderful way of showing unlikable characters so you fall in love with them. They present as prickly but deep down they're hurting and represent us all.If this is your first look at Backman I would suggest you start with "A man called Ove" or "My Grandmother sends her apologies". Please give Fredrik Backman a go and I'm sure you'll fall in love as I have.

After reading a man called Ove, i was looking forward to reading more of the author, but after forcing myself to complete reading this one, i never want to see another book by him again.I get that the place is run down and little happens, but every single character in this tale should have been killed off, just before the author cuts his hands off, so as never to put anyone through such an ordeal again.O would rather count how many grains of rice are in a sack of it than ever go through the near coma these tedious and unlikeable characters are.Ove was ten out of ten, this is one out of a thousand.I would have given it to a charity shop, but decided to rip it up and bin it in order to save anyone from having to go through the tedium of this book.Not usually so negative, but he has made me hate reading again, so hence one star. He deserves zero but that isn't an option.At times this book made me wish i was blind or dyslexic.

I had just finished ''My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises'' and went straight into this. At first, I was slightly put off, because the style and even the genre is quite different to the first book. I also felt that there was insufficient connection between the two, as it seemed that earlier events were not being presented in the same way, but I began to see that the stories were the same, just from a very different standpoint. Although neither book is in the first person, the first book is dominated by Elsa's viewpoint and this is thoroughly shaped by Britt-Marie's perspective.It is interesting that some people really hated the first of these two books and some really seem to hate this one, one reviewer even claiming they never want to read a book again. That's like deciding to starve just because you accidentally ate a chili!Once I realised that the first book is both deeply formed by Elsa's seven, nearly eight, year old perceptions and by Granny's power as a world-maker and shaper, while this is shaped by Britt-Marie's past and her recent sudden change of circumstance, the apparent gulf between the books did not matter as much. The 'fish out of water' aspect of her tale made sense to me, since I have moved, in the past, from a relatively big, cosmopolitan, city to a relatively small community, with a very different sense of identity. The latter felt beleaguered and was experiencing many of the negative aspects of recession decades before the financial crisis of this book. It also made sense of how the people of Borg have both a strong sense of identity and even independence and yet a desperate need of help and of a sense of purpose.I can accept that a single individual can provide a catalyst that can help to give such purpose and deepen and refresh a sense of identity, but this is often a more-deliberately chosen path. Britt-Marie, on the other hand, seems to stumble into various new tasks and new roles, even as she tries, desperately to hold onto the old certainties and pathways. Unlike Granny, in the first book, Britt-Marie is both more rigid and inflexible and also more brittle and vulnerable. I wondered how close she was going to come to breaking. She seemed to cope with a brief cry, even though her whole world had been taken from her.The people of Borg seem to be the real heroes, simply because they have such resilience and an ability to accept, not just any stranger but, this stranger, with all her quirks and rigid expectations.As with the former book, this novel has a number of hinges, first there are the personal revelations that make sense of Britt-Marie's past, then there are the personal experiences which begin to resist Britt-Marie's attempts to shape them and begin to shape her in turn and finally, there are the events that decisively shape Borg and thus, the world itself. Sometimes, these shifts are humourous, sometimes challenging and provoking and sometimes they are deeply moving. The ending is not what I expected, nor what I wanted - where was Alf? - but it makes sense within the bigger trajectory of Britt-Marie's story. However, I was left unsure whether there was a real future for her, or whether this was a blank wall that closed off any need for a future narrative for her. My only sadness was that, while Britt-Marie's personal journey had found a resolution, I was left wondering what would happen in Borg and to Borg?Once again, I enjoyed, not only the humour and the story but also the writing. The translation was superb, at least, from the point of view of a mono-lingual English reader. Obviously, this book is not set in England, but I did not feel that I was peering at the story across an almost unbridgeable gulf of culture and language. As I have said many times before, a native speaker would not read this as a 'foreign' novel, so a reader of a good translation should share the same experience, even as they are aware that they are reading about another place and culture.I would plead with those who might dislike this, not to expect the author to write as if each book is going to be a repeat or even a clone of a previous book. The author is relatively new to the trade and admits to having learned a lot. Quite apart from that, there is no rule that says he must confine himself to a single genre or style. If you are looking for single-genre, predictable, work, perhaps you should go elsewhere, if like me, you like this author, then take him for who he is (as he seems to accept his characters) and enjoy the journey.

Britt-Marie is quite a lonely soul. She has spent the last however many years looking after the house and her husband. All that changes when her husband leaves her and she has to go out in the world and find herself a job. The parts with Britt-Marie and the poor woman who works for the job centre were funny and sweet and I felt so sorry for this woman who Britt-Marie would call on literally any time of day and night!I know literally nothing about football even though I used to take my son to a local football club for training and matches when he was at school age. You would think I would have picked up something but I am as clueless as Britt-Marie when it comes to football. It was heart-warming reading of how she finds herself entwined with this local club as well as the youngsters that play the game. Borg has literally nothing really going for it yet you could feel a sense of community growing throughout the story.Britt-Marie Was Here has a protagonist which is very much the underdog coming out on top. It is sweet, sad, uplifting, as well as being emotional in part. As with a lot of this authors books, it’s the characters that excel and make them unputdownable reads. The author creates characters who on first appearances aren’t that likeable or memorable yet will have you falling hopelessly in love with their personalities by the end of the story as well as living on in your mind long after. Another novel where the characters will steal your heart!

I love the author Fredrik Backman, and was very excited to receive a copy of Britt-Marie was here on Audible. This was my first foray into Audible and I was very pleasantly surprised. It was beautifully read, and the different voices came over well. I have been cooking a lot recently and was able to listen to the book while I cooked.Initially I found Britt-Marie quite irritating, with her compulsion to clean, and her very black and white views, however it is so cleverly written that you soon see the softer side to Britt-Marie. When her cheating ex husband Kent turns up you just want to shake him.This quirky lady gets under the skin of everyone in the town of Borg, from the children to the elderly, and before long you realise she is under your skin too.If you are looking for a book with lots of excitement and adventure this isn’t for you. If you are looking for a beautifully crafted story with lots of true to life characters, and something that will make you think then you will love it.