Review of And Every Morning the Way Home gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman

Read for: Library Borrow/ Love the Author

Synopsis: "From the New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove,My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, and Britt-Marie Was Here comes an exquisitely moving portrait of an elderly man’s struggle to hold on to his most precious memories, and his family’s efforts to care for him even as they must find a way to let go.

With all the same charm of his bestselling full-length novels, here Fredrik Backman once again reveals his unrivaled understanding of human nature and deep compassion for people in difficult circumstances. This is a tiny gem with a message you’ll treasure for a lifetime."

My Review: After reading A Man Called Ove, this was the very next book of Backman's that attracted my attention (unfortunately the library waitlist is super long for all of his books, so I only just now got to read it). I listened to the audio version of this book, thinking that I would find the same connection with it that I had with Ove. Unfortunately, this time I think it would have been better to read in print. This was a short novella and it deals with a character who has alzheimer's disease. At first I really struggled to connect with the story or characters, there was a bit of confusion with the setting, there was quite a bit of symbolism and metaphors used. The MC also interacts with a few different characters, Ted and Noah and due to his failing memories it is not often clear who exactly he is speaking with at the time. While I understand that this is part of the narration to give you a glimpse of the character's struggles, it also made it very difficult to follow. I think the print version would have been better, with the use of page breaks to indicate moving on to a new scene/time. With that said by about halfway through I had figured things out and quickly became invested in the story and the struggles for all of the characters. I, of course, became a bit emotional towards the end of the story, because how could you not.

My Rating: While it was a little difficult to get into at first, which is unfortunate for such a short book, but it ended up really working in the long run. As I sad in my review, this may be easier to read in print. I give it a rating of Three Paws and a Stump Wag.