Fredrik Backman Books in Order
Complete reading list — from A Man Called Ove and Anxious People to the complete Beartown trilogy. Everything Backman has published, with where to start and reading order for each series.
About Fredrik Backman
Fredrik Backman is a Swedish author and blogger who became an international phenomenon almost accidentally. He wrote A Man Called Ove as a column about a grumpy old man for his blog, because he was home with his daughter while his wife worked. It was published in Sweden in 2012, became a bestseller, was adapted for a beloved Swedish film and later an Oscar-nominated American one (A Man Called Otto with Tom Hanks), and led to a career that has made Backman one of the most widely read Scandinavian authors since Stieg Larsson.
What distinguishes Backman is his ability to take difficult emotional subjects — grief, addiction, community failure, the things men refuse to say to each other — and make them funny enough to get the reader's guard down before delivering the emotional payload. His characters are always people who seem closed off because they've been hurt, and his novels are about the specific process by which that closure cracks open. He is also the rare contemporary novelist who writes men's interior lives with genuine insight and warmth, which partly explains why his books reach readers who don't normally read literary fiction.
Essential Starting Points
Four books that show the full range of Backman's writing — begin with any one of them.
The Beartown Trilogy — Read in Order
Backman's most ambitious project: three novels set in a small Swedish hockey town, following overlapping characters across years. Read 1 → 2 → 3. Each works as a standalone, but the impact compounds across all three.
Standalone Novels & Short Works
All of Backman's standalone novels can be read in any order. The short works below are best read after you've read at least one of his novels.
All Fredrik Backman Books — Publication Order
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | A Man Called Ove | Debut. Best starting point. |
| 2013 | My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry | Standalone |
| 2014 | Britt-Marie Was Here | Standalone |
| 2015 | And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer | Novella |
| 2016 | Beartown | Beartown #1 |
| 2016 | The Deal of a Lifetime | Short story |
| 2017 | Us Against You | Beartown #2 |
| 2019 | Anxious People | Standalone. Best after Ove. |
| 2021 | The Winners | Beartown #3 |
Frequently Asked Questions
What order should I read Fredrik Backman books?
Start with A Man Called Ove — it's the most accessible entry point and will immediately tell you whether Backman's voice works for you. After that, Anxious People is the best standalone. For the Beartown series, read Beartown → Us Against You → The Winners in order. The standalones (Ove, My Grandmother, Britt-Marie, Anxious People) can all be read in any order relative to each other.
Are Fredrik Backman's books connected?
The Beartown trilogy (Beartown, Us Against You, The Winners) is directly connected and should be read in order. The standalone novels are all independent — they share no characters or universe. Britt-Marie Was Here contains a brief mention of Ove, but this is a cameo rather than a plot connection and doesn't require having read A Man Called Ove first.
Which Fredrik Backman book is best?
A Man Called Ove is the most beloved and the most accessible — it's the consensus starting point and the book most people cite as having made them cry in public. Anxious People is many readers' favourite once they're into Backman's work — it's his most structurally clever and the most rewarding on re-read. Beartown is his most serious literary achievement but the most demanding emotionally. The short novella And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer is, by some measures, his most devastating work per page.
Is A Man Called Ove the same as A Man Called Otto?
Yes — A Man Called Otto (2022) starring Tom Hanks is the American film adaptation of Backman's novel A Man Called Ove. There was also an earlier Swedish film adaptation (2015) directed by Hannes Holm, with Rolf Lassgård as Ove, which was Oscar-nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. Both are faithful adaptations; the Swedish version is generally considered superior by fans of the book.
Is the Beartown series complete?
Yes. The Beartown trilogy is complete with three novels: Beartown (2016/2017), Us Against You (2017), and The Winners (2021/2022). Backman has not announced a fourth book in the series. Beartown was also adapted as an HBO Max/HBO Nordic limited series (2020–2021).