What to read next
Books Like Anxious People
More secrets and second chances for anyone who stayed for the witness interviews.
The robber in Anxious People picks a bank that doesn’t keep cash, then flees into an apartment viewing where people have brought their marital arguments along. Even after the hostage crisis, the father and son on the case still have to get a straight answer out of the witnesses.
If you liked changing your mind about the people in that apartment, start with Ove. For the same pleasure with a different crowd, try an Amsterdam care home or the front seats of a getaway car. If you’re here for the botched crime, there’s a house full of retirees who could use a hand with a cover-up.
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01A Man Called Ove
by Fredrik BackmanStay with Backman for the closest match. Ove is a widower who knows how a neighborhood should be run and has plenty to say when a young family moves in and damages his mailbox. His new neighbor Parvaneh keeps asking him for help anyway. The longer you spend with Ove, the more sense it makes to ask him.
There are fewer lives to untangle here, and much more time alone with one man in grief. Suicide attempts are central to his story.
02The Road to Tender Hearts
by Annie HartnettPJ Halliday is sixty-three, has won the lottery, and is headed to Arizona to see his high school crush. He’s bringing his daughter, two orphaned children, and Pancakes, a cat who can predict death. A doctor in the opening likes the idea of the cat’s talent right up until Pancakes sits on his keyboard. Then he tries to interest the cat in his older patients.
Read this for a family that takes shape on the road. Annie Hartnett goes further into gallows humor than Backman, with alcoholism and violent parental deaths in the setup.
03The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83¼ Years Old
by Hendrik GroenHendrik saves his sharpest remarks for the diary he keeps in his Amsterdam care home. He’s especially good on the director, who warms to the idea of openness when there’s publicity in it. The pleasures here are smaller than a bungled robbery. Hendrik and his friend Evert just want a day out with the Old-But-Not-Dead Club.
04Where'd You Go, Bernadette
by Maria SempleBee’s parents make a promise to put an end to her requests for a pony. That’s how they find themselves agreeing to a trip to Antarctica, each waiting for the other to say no. Then her mother vanishes, and Bee has to piece together what happened from emails and invoices.
This is the one to pick if you liked how each witness had their own version of the apartment. The satire has a sharper edge, especially when Bernadette gets to describe in private what other people would consider an ordinary social obligation.
05The Satsuma Complex
by Bob MortimerGary Thorn remembers what the woman at the pub was reading, which is more than he can say for her name. Finding her becomes a more urgent business when his drinking companion goes missing. Gary talks over his worries with a squirrel and supplies its answers himself. The silliness is gentle, though the case brings in domestic abuse.
06The Guncle
by Steven RowleyPatrick O’Hara would prefer that even emergency calls wait until he’s had enough sleep. After the children’s mother dies and their father enters addiction treatment, the former sitcom star spends the summer looking after his niece and nephew. If you liked the moments when Backman lets people joke because they can barely talk about what’s hurting them, go here.
07The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise
by Colleen OakleyWhen Tanner takes a job looking after Louise, she expects plenty of time for video games. Louise has her crossword and her afternoon vodka. They could go on like that quite happily until Louise shows up at Tanner’s door at one in the morning with a bag packed. For a mystery that leaves time for its characters to get to know each other, ride along while Tanner works out why her passenger looks so much like a suspect in an old jewel heist.
08We Solve Murders
by Richard OsmanThe one for when you’d rather have a chase. A job protecting a novelist puts bodyguard Amy Wheeler in danger, so she calls her retired father-in-law Steve. Soon he’s on a private jet asking if there’s a sausage roll instead of sushi.
09The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp
by Leonie SwannAgnes is relieved when the police tell her there’s been a murder next door. She and her housemates already have a body at Sunset Hall, and if they can find the neighbor’s killer, maybe the police will pin both deaths on the same person. Picture a cozy village mystery where the people doing the sleuthing need the police to ask fewer questions.
10An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good
by Helene TurstenThe darkest pick is a collection about Maud, who is eighty-eight and pays no rent on a spacious Gothenburg apartment. When a neighbor takes an interest, Maud treats it as a threat to decades of good living. Save these stories for when you’re in the mood to find out how far someone will go to keep her flat.
If you’ve already read A Man Called Ove, we’d go with The Road to Tender Hearts for the company or Where’d You Go, Bernadette for the pleasure of piecing together what everyone left out.
Another guide to try
Books like
A Man Called Ove
by Fredrik Backman
More grumps with tender hearts and a few people worth breaking routine for.
Funny Literary Fiction9 picks
Every book here has a full profile on HahaFiction, with the sources behind it. How we choose books
