A different almost 8 year old girl's grandmother dies and she spends the next few days on a treasure hunt getting to know those who live in the house around her, making friends along the way. Backman explores what it means to lose loved ones, and how everyone around has their own past and stories that you'd never suspect without asking. Backman once again demonstrates his ability to write flawed, human characters into his stories.

Favorite Quotes behind spoiler tag: "People who think slowly always accuse quick thinkers of concentration problems, idiots can't understand that non-idiots are done with a thought and already moving onto the next before they have."

"When mom and dad did a cleaning, mom wrote a minute by minute breakdown of the cleaning schedule, and then dad would get sort of caught up with descaling the coffee percolator for two and a half hours"

"When a child is born in Miamus, all the families friends come to the cot and tell stories and pull faces and dance and sing and make jokes and the first one to make the child laugh becomes the Laugher. They are personally responsible for making it happen as often and as loudly and in as many situations as possible. Particularly those that cause embarrassment to the parents." ( )

This is the most heart felt, real life interpretation mixed with a child's fairy tale point of view. I laughed and I most definitely cried like I haven't in forever. Elsa captivated my heart and soul. She made me feel her every hurt, frustrated, anger and sorrow moment. You go on an extraordinary journey that will leave you looking at the world in a a new way. ( )

I kept reading because I wanted to know what happened, which is a sign of a good story, but I was not a fan of the cutesy style of the 8 year-old narrator. So really just two stars is all I can give this. Disappointing after enjoy Anxious People so much... ( )

I enjoyed this book! I laughed, I cried, I wondered and I leaned. Elsa (age almost 8) and her grandmother (Granny) have a uniquely special and very close relationship. Granny shares fairy tales to help Elsa cope with her challenges ( her parents divorce, bullying at school, no friends etc). When Granny learns she is dying of cancer, she writes letters to all the people in the house where they live and asks Elsa to take on a quest. Through the delivering of these letters, Elsa learns about her grandmother and all the tenants in the house in a way she couldn’t have done otherwise. She also recognizes these people are characters in the fairy tales. There’s more connections in this house (flat) than it appears at first.

Elsa is precocious and understands people more than they realize and yet she is vulnerable and insecure and needs her ‘protectors’ and new friends. Losing her grandmother is incredibly difficult and yet through the quest, she learns to build relationships with her mom and dad and others and find happiness.

Well written and heartwarming with very real characters. ( )

Another quirky book by Backman. Strange unique characters that over time engage you the reader, and grow in depth to where you understand those parts of their character that seem so strange at the beginning. This story follows Elsa and her grandmother. You won't counter several characters in a fairyland that is a representation of Elsa's real life. Well worth the journey.
I see in this book the authors development that will come to fruition in the Beartown books. ( )