Review: My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


When you read this book, expect to be bemused and derailed on most part. That's what you get from reading at the perspective of the lonely but shrewd little Elsa. The fairy tales fused within the story are often confusing, but so Delphic and lovingly constructed, it makes you want to reflect on life after reading any profound details from them. As the story progressed, it became harder to distinguish which are part of the plot and which are part of her Granny's fairy tales. Nevertheless, I think I would've enjoyed reading this story more at a younger age. And it's really easy to relate to Elsa, seeing as we both love Harry Potter and how as kids, we were both different from our peers.

I was willing to give this book a three-star rating halfway through. Like I said, the book was confusing in almost all aspects. But when I got to the end, everything fell into place, and I can't help but feel so ecstatic and undone by the sheer magic and simplicity of Granny's fairy tales and how they continue to help Elsa cope (hence, three became four). I realized, the fairy tales ARE the story. I can't help it, I'm still a sucker for happy endings. 

Few of my favorite lines:

"Maybe she was disappointed in you because you're so disappointed in yourself."
"The mightiest power of death is not that it can make people die, but that it can make the people left behind want to stop living..."
"...because the people who reach the end of their days must leave others who have to live out their days without them."



View all my reviews