MIN MORMOR HALSAR OCH SAGER FORLÅT (MY GRANDMOTHER ASKED ME TO TELL YOU SHE'S SORRY) 
BY FREDRIK BACKMAN
PUBLISHED: 2013
AVERAGE RATING: 4.04
372 PAGES
★★★★★
Fredrik Backman. How is it that everytime i read a book of his, i feel that the world makes more sense than ever? How is it that he’s always able to take a really dislikeable characrer and make him or her a person i’ll love forever? Everyone Backman writers about turns to heroes. No kidding.

Backman is the writer of my all-time favorite book "A man called Ove". He also wrote Britt-Marie, another wonderfully beautiful book that I just love. And he's the writer of "My Grandmother Asked me to tell you that she's Sorry", wich was published september the 4th 2013 in sweidsh and in english the 15th of june 2015.

Having a grandmother is like having an army. This is a grandchild’s ultimate privilege: Knowing that someone is on your side, always, whatever the details.

This book is a little different than the two previously mentioned. As it is easy to compare the two main characters Ove and Britt-Marie from the other books, seven year old Elsa is not comparable to anyone at all.

Elsa is a seven year old girl who feels lonely in the world and acts different than others. Her parents are divorced; Her dad has found a new family, and Elsa feel like she does’nt belong, and her mom is pregnant with “Halfie” (half-brother or half-sister), wich makes Elsa feel a little threatened. At school she is bullied. When Elsa’s best friend in the whole world, the half-crazy, but loveable Grandmother, dies, Elsa have to pick up the pieces of her grandmothers unfinished business in form of a bunch of letters of apology. This turn out to be a journey that will change Elsa’s life forever.

“Only different people change the world”, granny used to say. “No one normal has ever changed a crapping thing.”

As I mentioned: What makes Backman's books so special is his ability of describing a person in a way that make you feel like you truly know them. There are a lot of good books out there that does this, but I've never read books that does it as good as Backman does it.

In this book, this exact ability works in a mysterious way. I don't know if it's a good sign at all (it's probably not...), but somehow, it was easier to relate to Ove and Britt-Marie than it was for me to relate to eight year old Elsa. I experienced the book through an eight year olds eyes, and it felt magical and weird at the same time. It felt kind of like I myself was eight years old again when I read it. You're just sitting there thinking "yep, that's probably what 8 year old me would have thought too".

It was saturday and granny and Elsa were going to an exhibit about dinosaurs. That was the morning Mum put the Gryffingdor scarf in the was without asking and made Elsa take another scarf - a vomit green one. She really lacks empathy sometimes, that woman.

But not in every situation, because Elsa is "adult for her age", usually spell-corrects when adults say something wrong, loves to look up things on Wikipedia and keep a “word jar” at her dad with words she's curious about.

“Then the boy shouted that Elsa couldn't be Spider-Man because 'only boys can be Spider-Man!' And then Elsa told him he could be Spider-Man's girlfriend. And then he pushed Elsa into a radiator. And then Elsa hit him with a book. Elsa still thinks he should thank her for it, because that's probably the nearest that boy ever got to a book.”

The book is a wonderful journey through adventures both in the real world and in Elsa's world and every chapter made me wanna order the first plane ticket to go and visit my own grandmother. It's a book that tells a sad story in a wonderful, heartwarming, funny way, and you'll never forget Elsa and her journey throught both the real world and Miamas, Elsa and granny’s fantasy world. As always, backman's book is beautifully written and it's one of the books I'm proud to put at the front of my bookshelf, almost hoping that people who visits will ask about it so I can give them such a wonderful reading experience.