Ove is a different kind of man. He sticks strongly to what he calls "principles" which other people think make him look hard and stubborn. He is also extremely adept at doing various handy jobs and cars. So, he lives in his row house where he has lived since it was just development still surrounded by trees, to now, when it is just another house in rows of houses just like it. In that time, he has grown older and his life has changed, but he has always gone his job every morning after his morning rounds of the neighborhood. Until today. He has been laid off from his job because he has "gotten too old". So he goes around the neighborhood making sure everything is as it should be, then returns to his house to put up a hook.
The next morning, he does the same thing, then returns to his house and puts a noose on the ceiling around his neck. Right when he is about to end his life, he hears a massive noise outside. New neighbors are moving in next door, and they have backed their trailer into Ove's flower bed. It seems that the man driving cannot back up with a trailer, and Ove has to do it for him, all the while grumbling about how people don't know how to do anything anymore. Then he walks back inside without answering Parvaneh and Patrick's thank yous.
His wife, Sonja, died a few years ago. She was the only person, the only thing that Ove had ever loved. She was assertive from the very beginning when he met her on a train. He saw her while she was going home and decided to sit down across from her. Luckily for him, he didn't have to say much because she loved to talk, and he loved hearing her talk. He rode the train the wrong way from where he should have been going for weeks, sleeping in the train station so he wouldn't miss his job shift. Then finally, she told him he should ask her out, and he does. She finally gets Ove to talk about his future aspirations as a builder or engineer, and she helps him go through the coursework to get certified. Then they finally get married, move into that housing development along with Anita and Rune, one of the first people to move in. He and Rune become friends and form a Residents' Association. Anita and Sonja get pregnant, and Ove and Rune, being similar types of men, try to help each other through it. Then, disaster strikes.
Sonja decides that they should go on a vacation to Spain. Sonja sleeps through most of the day, but they have fun nonetheless. While she sleeps, Ove helps the residents of the neighborhood figure out their building projects. Then, on one tour bus, Ove notices that the driver appears drunk. Sonja does not, however, and insists they get on anyway. Sure enough, the bus crashes and Sonja is permanently paralyzed from the waist down. Ove is furious, tries writing to so many different officials, but all of the white-shirt men ignore him until he has no one left to write to. It's just the way it has been his entire life. When his childhood home burned down, the firemen couldn't put it out in time. He was scammed into buying fake home insurance, and now his home is gone forever. The white shirts have ignored him his entire life. And now, Sonja is dead, and he doesn't have a job anymore, and he is ready for it all to be over.
But Parvaneh and Patrick just can't seem to let him rest. They send over thank you meals, ask him for help, and even force him to take in a street cat that frequents his yard, though he continues to insist that it belongs to no one. He inadvertently saves a man from a subway crash during his own attempt to be part of a crash. He even gives Parvaneh driving lessons when Patrick gets hurt and can't drive anymore.
Then, of course, there is Rune. In the years since he and Ove began a war over leadership of the Residents' Association, ultimately ending when Rune bought a BMW, much to Ove's horror (either you understand it or you don't: Ove is very loyal to manual, domestic manufacturers), Rune has deteriorated. He hardly remembers anything anymore; in fact, he remembers Ove as a friend. And when men in white shirts come to try to put him in a home against Anita's will, he decides that it is finally time for their ways to stop. He gets the local reporter, who has been following him ever since he saved that man in the subway, to dig up all the information about the man's "home" in return for an interview. They discover that the man has broken all sorts of regulations and laws, taking people away so that his company can make money. And somehow, Ove becomes indispensable to the neighborhood. People come to him to fix all sorts of things, and there is purpose in his life again. He dies, several years later, peacefully in his bed, with instructions for what should be done with his possessions. He asks for a quiet funeral, but hundreds show up to pay their respects anyway. And when Parvaneh sells his house, it is to a couple, not so different from Ove and Sonja - a young, excited woman and a sulky but enterprising man.
I enjoyed reading this book because it transitions from a somewhat dark image at the beginning to a happier note at the end, all mixed in with various chapters from Ove's life. I thought it was interesting that it sent a message that everyone matters, and I wonder if the author as experienced someone die in their life. I especially liked that it came full circle in the end with the selling of Ove's house.
