A bank robber’s escape plan is foiled when he takes the wrong door out of the building, and ends up accidentally holding eight strangers hostage. But when the police finally enter the building, the bank robber has vanished, leaving only a bloodstain on the floor. As the police interview the hostages to get leads on the bank robber’s whereabouts, they become more and more frustrated. It’s hard to figure out what happened when the only witnesses are eight anxious people who had a hard day.
Fredrik Backman excels at writing stories that are a bit quirky, but that also hit right at the core of common human worries and anxieties. Although all of the characters in this story are more over-the-top than those featured in Backman’s other books, they all have moments when their true fears and desires are revealed. Personally, I loved this mixture of absurdity and heart, and found myself laughing aloud one minute, then sighing in sympathy the next.
This story is mostly told in non-sequential order, which allows the reader to get a better idea of each character's background story, but also keeps the reader, along with the police, in the dark as to what actually happened until the very end. Because of this, the plot takes some interesting and unexpected turns, which ends to a satisfying conclusion for everyone.
MB
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