My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s
Sorry
By
Fredrick Backman
Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Atria Books (June 16, 2015)
ISBN-10: 1501115065
ISBN-13: 978-1501115066
Approximate Lexile: 960
Publisher description:
“Elsa
is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old
and crazy, standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-men-who-want-to-talk-about-Jesus-crazy.
She is also Elsa’s best, and only, friend. At night Elsa takes refuge in her
grandmother’s stories, in the Land of Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas
where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal.
“When Elsa’s grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa’s greatest adventure begins. Her grandmother’s letters lead her to an apartment building full of drunks, monsters, attack dogs, and totally ordinary old crones, but also to the truth about fairytales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other.”
“When Elsa’s grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa’s greatest adventure begins. Her grandmother’s letters lead her to an apartment building full of drunks, monsters, attack dogs, and totally ordinary old crones, but also to the truth about fairytales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other.”
When
I saw this book mentioned in Bookpages, I
rushed right over to NetGalley, hoping I could get my (figurative) hands on it.
Lucky me—I did!
In
some ways, the narrative style reminds me of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close—a “special” child is the
point-of-view character. The third-person limited point-of-view character in
this case is Elsa, nearly eight years old and brilliant. In many ways, she
reminds me of my very bright almost-eight-year-old daughter, but mine is not as
precocious as Elsa. Elsa is gifted with an eccentric, strong-willed Granny who
is her best friend. When Granny dies, Elsa is tasked with delivering letters of
apology to the various inhabitants of their apartment building. On the way,
Elsa discovers that the fairytales her grandmother told her explain the lives
of the people around her.
The
book is told in present tense, not my favorite narrative style, but it works
for this story. (Still bugs me, but not enough to ruin my enjoyment in this
case.) One surprise at the end was totally not surprising, but again, that
doesn’t ruin the story.
I
will read this one again.
Possible objectionable material: Mild cursing,
mostly by adults, but occasionally by Elsa. Some violence and tense moments. A
husband cheats on his wife. Elsa’s mother lives with a man she’s not married
to.
Who would like this book: People who like
child narrators (Room, Extremely Loud, etc.). People who like
stories about family and finding one’s place in the world.
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