Editorial Content for Britt-Marie Was Here
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
We first meet Britt-Marie in the unemployment office. Five minutes into her conversation with “the girl” (who remains nameless throughout the book but is still a sort of confidante), she has proven to be socially inept. The girl’s haircut is so short that “it is courageous when you have such a large forehead,” while her business acumen is acknowledging that the financial crisis is “a little outside your field of competence.” In Fredrik Backman’s third novel, BRITT-MARIE WAS HERE, the heroine must find herself and who she has been for the past 40 years. But first she must find a job.
Borg, a community built along a road, is almost closed down. The recreation center and the pizzeria have not been closed down, but that’s only because they haven’t had time to do it yet. Britt-Marie has arrived there to become a caretaker in the recreation center for three weeks in January. With the extraordinarily poor pay, the location and the ephemeral time frame, it’s easy to see why Britt-Marie had no competition. But she has a job nonetheless.
"BRITT-MARIE WAS HERE is funny and true. We may not know a Borg or anyone like its huge-hearted inhabitants, but we should."
Borg has little to offer, but then again, neither does Britt-Marie. Her husband has left her for a younger woman, and after she has cleaned their apartment thoroughly and washed his shirt (twice) to rid it of the pizza and perfume smells, she leaves. The small circle of whiteness on the ring finger where her wedding band belongs hurts sometimes. And some days she would love nothing more than to be home again, ironing Kent’s shirts, waiting for him late at night and finding a coaster for his vodka glass.
But she stays. Britt-Marie has always cleaned, and she continues to clean. She sprinkles baking soda on sheets, mattresses, the soil in flower pots and dirty laundry. She reorganizes drawers, forks, knives and spoons. “We’re not animals, are we?” she murmurs when she finds cutlery all akimbo in dirty containers atop kitchen counters. She sprays Faxin on mirrors, tabletops, picture frames and windows. She sweeps and scrubs floors, and then disinfects them. Children who come to the recreation center have their shirts and soccer uniforms washed, dried and folded.
While we wait for Britt-Marie’s realization that she can do more than clean and wait, soccer makes a stunning appearance. It also stuns Britt-Marie (the first muddy ball crashes into her head and knocks her out), and she becomes the leader of Borg’s unbearably awful children’s team. Without asking or making it seem like it’s even happening, Britt-Marie enlists advice and help coalescing a misfit team and a misfit town.
BRITT-MARIE WAS HERE is funny and true. We may not know a Borg or anyone like its huge-hearted inhabitants, but we should. Fredrik Backman sees imagination, wonder and love in a 63-year-old woman whose life was running its course, living in a dog-eat-dog world, when she realizes something. Almost all the questions a person asks himself or herself are about one thing: How should you live your life? Britt-Marie’s answer is very satisfying.
Audiobook available, read by Joan Walker
Teaser
When Britt-Marie walks out on her cheating husband and has to fend for herself, she is more than a little unprepared. Employed as the caretaker of a soon-to-be demolished recreation center, she finds herself being drawn into the daily doings of her fellow citizens, which includes a handsome local policeman whose romantic attentions to Britt-Marie are as unmistakable as they are unwanted. Most alarming of all, she’s given the impossible task of leading the supremely untalented children’s soccer team to victory. In this small town of big-hearted misfits, can Britt-Marie find a place where she truly belongs?
Promo
When Britt-Marie walks out on her cheating husband and has to fend for herself, she is more than a little unprepared. Employed as the caretaker of a soon-to-be demolished recreation center, she finds herself being drawn into the daily doings of her fellow citizens, which includes a handsome local policeman whose romantic attentions to Britt-Marie are as unmistakable as they are unwanted. Most alarming of all, she’s given the impossible task of leading the supremely untalented children’s soccer team to victory. In this small town of big-hearted misfits, can Britt-Marie find a place where she truly belongs?
About the Book
The bestselling author of A MAN CALLED OVE and MY GRANDMOTHER ASKED ME TO TELL YOU SHE’S SORRY returns with an irresistible novel about finding love and second chances in the most unlikely of places.
Britt-Marie can’t stand mess. A disorganized cutlery drawer ranks high on her list of unforgivable sins. She begins her day at 6 a.m., because only lunatics wake up later than that. And she is not passive-aggressive. Not in the least. It's just that sometimes people interpret her helpful suggestions as criticisms, which is certainly not her intention. She is not one to judge others --- no matter how ill-mannered, unkempt or morally suspect they might be.
But hidden inside the socially awkward, fussy busybody is a woman who has more imagination, bigger dreams and a warmer heart that anyone around her realizes.
When Britt-Marie walks out on her cheating husband and has to fend for herself in the miserable backwater town of Borg --- of which the kindest thing one can say is that it has a road going through it --- she is more than a little unprepared. Employed as the caretaker of a soon-to-be demolished recreation center, the fastidious Britt-Marie has to cope with muddy floors, unruly children and a (literal) rat for a roommate. She finds herself being drawn into the daily doings of her fellow citizens, an odd assortment of miscreants, drunkards, layabouts --- and a handsome local policeman whose romantic attentions to Britt-Marie are as unmistakable as they are unwanted. Most alarming of all, she’s given the impossible task of leading the supremely untalented children’s soccer team to victory. In this small town of big-hearted misfits, can Britt-Marie find a place where she truly belongs?
Funny and moving, observant and humane, BRITT-MARIE WAS HERE celebrates the unexpected friendships that change us forever, and the power of even the gentlest of spirits to make the world a better place.
