ivotn terno Backman Fredrik (2019)

This novel takes place on the night before Christmas Eve, when a woman in grey walks along a hospital corridor to take one of the patients away. Her list includes a five-year-old girl with cancer who paints her favourite chair red, a twenty-year-old man polishing a beer glass in his beloved pub, and a forty-five-year-old man speeding through the darkness in an expensive car, looking for something to crash into. One of them will die unless someone else voluntarily gives up their life. Yet simply dying is not enough, because life is not only what is ending but everything that came before. Fredrik Backman portrays human doubts and inner demons with great skill while retaining his sense of humour. The story is sadder than Dickenss A Christmas Carol, but it also offers hope and the possibility of putting things right, though at a very high price.