Book review, full book summary and synopsis for Anxious People by Frederik Backman, a comedic but sincere novel about a failed bank robbery gone right.
Synopsis
Anxious People is about a failed bank robbery that turns an apartment viewing into a hostage situation and the subsequent investigation into it. The victims are argumentative and difficult, the bank robber is distraught and the realtor is incompetent. But when a gunshot goes off and the police find an apartment covered in blood, things get serious. It's a darkly comedic, yet also lighthearted story about a group of impossible people that are all stuck together, about empathy and battles we are all fighting, about people's struggles and hopes and dreams, and about a missing bank robber that the police can't seem to track down.(The Full Plot Summary is also available, below)
Full Plot Summary
Section-by-Section SummarySee the Section-by-Section Summary of Anxious PeopleQuick Plot SummaryThe one-sentence version of this is that Anxious People is about a group of people held hostage after a bank robbery who get to know each other, and they end up helping each other and helping the bank robber to find her way out of the mess.
The story, told achronologically, opens by explaining that, on the day before New Years Eve, there has been a failed bank robbery in a small town. The robber goes into a bank to demand a small amount of money, only to learn that it is a cashless bank. The robber flees into a nearby apartment building and into an apartment showing. The robber takes the people there hostage. It's soon surrounded by police. After a hours-long ordeal, the hostages are released. Afterwards, a gunshot goes off and the police storm the apartment to find it empty, but covered in blood.
Afterwards, the police question the eight hostages, all of whom are unhelpful and difficult. The hostages are: the realtor, a young couple (Julia and Ro), an elderly woman (Estelle), a businesswoman (Zara), an older couple (Roger and Anna-Lena) and finally a man (Lennart).
Zara is a bank manager. Ten years ago, a man jumped from a bridge nearby after losing all his money during the financial crisis. He had requested a loan, but was denied by Zara. He mails her a note before he jumps. A decade later, she still keeps it in her handbag, unopened. Jim and Jack are the local policemen investigating the robbery. Jim is Jack's father. As a teenager, Jack had seen the man on the bridge and tried unsuccessfully to convince him not to jump. A week later he sees another girl there, Nadia, about to jump. He pulled her back forcefully, and she grows up to become a psychiatrist.
Julia and Ro are looking for a home, since Julia is pregnant. The older couple, Roger and Anna-Lena, are retirees who renovate and sell apartments. Estelle, a widow, is there on behalf of her daughter. Lennart, an actor, ends up emerging from the bathroom, dressed in a ridiculous rabbit costume (Anna-Lena hires him to ruin viewings to bring down the price).
When the distraught robber comes in with a pistol, they don't take the robber very seriously. But they don't leave, either. The robber is recently divorced. It's revealed that her husband cheated on her with her boss, leaving her homeless, jobless and penniless. She sold her possessions and got a new job (but hasn't been paid yet). She needs just one month's rent to prevent being evicted from her new place. Her husband is also demanding sole custody of their kids. Feeling desperate, she decided to hold up the bank with a gun she finds.
Stuck in the apartment, the group of strangers get to know each other. Julia worries about being a good mother. Ro talks about falling in love with Julia. Estelle talks about missing her late husband. At first people think Roger is a jerk who bosses Anna-Lena around, but that's not the case. Anna-Lena used to have a high-powered job. Roger put his career on hold, so she could pursue her dreams. Now, she helps him with the apartment flipping even though she's tired of it, because she thinks it's his turn to do something that is meaningful to him.
The robber decides to just let all of them go, but they stay to help her figure out a way out of the mess. They're also waiting on a pizza they demanded from the police outside. When Jim comes up to deliver the pizzas, he learns what the robber's story is. He feels bad for her, and he suggests that she hide in the apartment next door, which is vacant. (He later lies and doesn't tell his son about seeing her.) Estelle reveals that this apartment belongs to her daughter. It used to be hers, and she once had an (emotional) affair with the neighbor next door. She still has a key to the apartment. She gives it to the bank robber, who uses it to hide out after the hostages leave.
Afterwards, Jack investigates, trying to learn how the bank robber could have disappeared. He finds out that the blood is fake (it was one of Lennart's props). He figures out that after the phone they sent up (to communicate with the robber) must've vibrated, causing the table to shake and the pistol to fall off, resulting in the errant gunshot. Meanwhile, Jim finally tells Jack the truth about what happened when he went to deliver the pizzas.
Jack and Jim decide not to pursue the case. In the end, no one was injured and nothing was stolen. Estelle ends up staying in that apartment. Estelle lets the robber stay with her. Julia and Ro buy the neighbor's apartment. Zara finally opens the note in the her purse, which simply says "it wasn't your fault", and she starts seeing Lennart. Jack and Nadia reunite. The book ends with the reminder of how people and strangers can impact each others' lives and how we're all just people who want the same basic things and are struggling with the same things.
For more detail, see the full Section-by-Section Summary.
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Loved reading your thoughts. I agree, I think I liked it more than A Man Called Ove. It was my kind of humour and loved all the character interactions!
thanks so much kristin! and yes! so many legitimately funny parts in this book :)
I really enjoyed the book. Humor, love, suspense, sentiments etc… this book has got it all. And an equally apt review.
The back and forth timeline confused me a bit though.
If you can tell me who the man who jumped off the bridge 10 years ago was and how was he related to Zara and Nadia, I’d be happy.
I really enjoyed the book. Humor, love, suspense, sentiments etc… this book has got it all. And an equally apt review.
The back and forth timeline confused me a bit though.
If you can tell me who the man who jumped off the bridge 10 years ago was and how was he related to Zara and Nadia, I’d be happy.
Hi Tarun, the man who jumped from a bridge is someone who had requested a loan from Zara, but was denied. He mails her a note before he jumps. A decade later, she still keeps it in her handbag, unopened (and at the end of the book we learn what the note says).
Meanwhile, as a teenager, Jack had seen the man on the bridge and tried unsuccessfully to convince him not to jump. A week later he sees Nadia at the same place about to jump. He pulls her back forcefully, and she grows up to become a psychiatrist.
I don’t usually like silly, feel-good books, either, but I love Fredrik Backman’s novels. I need to read this one ASAP.
hope you love it, happy reading! :)
Ohhhh this has definitely been added to my TBR list!
yay, so happy to hear it! :)
That’s a great review! Will definitely add these to my reading lists!
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed most of Backman’s books. I read half Anxious People and quit. It was ridiculous and a waste of my time.
I would greatly appreciate your telling me who the bank robber was. I led a book club on this novel last night and there were disagreements as to her identity. I have already reread the book and can’t find the sentence where I thought backman revealed her identity. Please be so kind as to help me out with this thank you.
Hi Beth, the bank robber is a separate person (not the realtor or one of the people there for the viewing) who doesn’t walk out of the apt with everyone else. The reason why she doesn’t exit with the rest is because they hide her in the other apartment on the floor.
Is Estelle the bank robber’s mother in “Anxious People?”
Hi Dianne, nope. Estelle is the mother of the person who owns the apartment they’re being held hostage in. At the end of the book, the bank robber becomes Estelle’s roommate because the bank robber needs somewhere to stay.
I finished the book and then went back to beginning, only to discover I couldn’t remember what the gun shot was and where the blood came from. Help me to remember, please.
I was confused. Maybe I missed something but the bank robber was a man for half the book then switched to a woman. What happened
I think we were supposed to think it was a man but it turned out to be a woman
Same! I am at that part now and I’m so confused! Wasn’t the bank robber a man whose wife left him for his boss?!?