From Goodreads:
From the author of the internationally bestselling 'A Man Called Ove', a novel about a young girl whose grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters, sending her on a journey that brings to life the world of her grandmother's fairy tales.
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.
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.
For the record-- I don't really review books. I don't feel qualified, BUT I do love to talk about them and like to feel part of the book blogging world. And this is a great way for me to log my books --besides Goodreads that is.
From Me:
I'm going to say it again---I didn't really want to read this one --- but I'm so glad I did.
We had just finished "A Man Called Ove' and I was reading reviews that said this book didn't live up to his first (Ove). But you know, it's book club and I try my hardest to read all the books I should.
Well....and I might be the only one around---but I liked this one better than Ove! (and I really liked Ove)
Sometimes the fairy tale part of the story got me a little bogged down, but I loved how it all came together at the end. I liked how we are all entwined and how we need each other.
I do have one problem with Backman's books---In OVE the curmudgeony old man was '57'. and in this one the little girl is 7. I have to get his ages out of my head, because 57 is NOT OLD and 7....Hmmmmm if the main character Elsa is really only 7, she's the smartest 7 year old EVER. As I said, I had to let his age descriptions go.
I listened to this one on audio and loved, LOVED the narration.
4 stars from me!
2 comments:
Good to hear that this one worked well for you and also that the audio is well done. I've yet to pick these books up, but I imagine I will at some point. Yes, book clubs stretch our reading a bit - which is a good thing I think.
I am glad you enjoyed this one, Debbie! I did too. I may have liked Ove better, but it doesn't take away how good this one was too. I think my main issue with this one was the fact that they kept feeding that poor dog chocolate. I wanted to yell, "No!" each time they did.
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