A Man Called Ove

Fredrik Backman’s first novel, published in Swedish in 2012, is about Ove, a curmudgeonly 59-year-old who polices his neighborhood’s rules and has had little use for anyone since the death of his wife. When a boisterous young family moves in next door and flattens his mailbox, his carefully ordered solitude starts to give way. Funny and moving, it became an international bestseller and was adapted into an Oscar-nominated Swedish film and an American remake starring Tom Hanks.