Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

An inept bank robber tries to hold up a "cashless" bank.  When told there is no cash to steel, the bank robber runs away and into an apartment building.  There just happens to be an apartment viewing going on, and the bank robber ends up taking the real estate agent and the prospective buyers hostage. In the ensuing hours, the hostages talk, and listen, and open their hearts to one another.  Meanwhile two police officers, a father and a son, try to figure out what to do to get the hostages out safely and how to deal with their own personal loss.

The discription above makes this sound like a police drama, but it isn't really.  It is really a deep dive into personalities, appearance, and human nature.  This is by the same author as A Man Called Ove. It deals with some of the same issues like family, depression, and unexpected human connection. Backham is so amazingly good at picking a character and then pealing back the layers of their personality one skin at a time. In the end all the characters are sympathetic and you finish the book wanting to go out and hug everyone you meet. I am trying to decide which book I liked better.  This book had a really tight and clever mystery plot, and less swearing.  The other book probably made me laugh outloud more.  I guess liked them both. (2020, 352 p.)