Britt-Marie as she first appears in Fredrik Backman's novel Britt-Marie Was Here (#625) seems prickly, peculiar and uncomfortable, yet by the end of the book, I found myself rooting for her to make the right choices. She deserves every good thing that can come her way.
How does Mr. Backman do it? Britt-Marie obviously falls somewhere along the autism spectrum, and she certainly displays strong components of OCD. Yet by revealing bits of her back story as she struggles with the break-up of her marriage and transplantation to a dying town in the middle of nowhere when it's the only job the Unemployment Office can find for her ,you gradually come to realize the roots of the deep pain of what she perceives as her failures.
As she is forced to stand on her own two feet for the first time in her life when she lands in Borg she begins to make friends. And what a motley collection they turn out to be! If Britt-Marie meets a situation she doesn't know how to handle (She's totally lacking in social skills; she's been told so many, many times!) she cleans. Borg's Recreation Center has never been so sparkling. No matter what she does, she cannot seem to escape soccer. On arrival in town, she's literally hit in the head with a soccer ball. Who would ever have predicted that she would wind up as the coach of a ragbag time of kids in town? Or that she will care about the people there, and that the favor is returned in the oddest ways.
But the hardest choices will have to be made when Britt-Marie's straying husband comes to town to fetch her back home. Will she choose her former "normal" life, or will she continue to discover new strengths within herself? No one in Borg will ever be the same after Britt-Marie.
Highly recommended!
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