About Fredrik Backman
Fredrik Backman is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, Britt-Marie Was Here and Beartown (to be released in May 2017) as well as a novella, And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer. He has also published a work of nonfiction, Things My Son Needs to Know About the World.
Backman was born in Brännkyrka (South Stockholm), Sweden, and grew up in Helsingborg. He had ambitions of being a journalist but got distracted by studying comparative religion instead. After more than three years, he dropped out and became a forklift driver at a food warehouse, which would allow him to write part time. When the free newspaper Xtra was launched in 2006, the owner reached out to Backman to write for the paper. After a test article, he continued to write columns for Xtra and soon began writing for Moore Magazine. He eventually became a full-time freelance writer.
About his move to writing, Backman said “I write things. Before I did that I had a real job, but then I happened to come across some information saying there were people out there willing to pay people just to write things about other people, and I thought ‘surely this must be better than working.’ And it was, it really was. Not to mention the fact that I can sit down for a living now, which has been great for my major interest in cheese-eating.”
Backman’s debut novel, A Man Called Ove (2012) came about after writing in his blog about things that dads and husbands do that drive their families crazy. It was adapted as a film in 2015. His books are published around the world in more than35 languages. In 2013, he was voted Sweden’s most popular author.
Backman lives in Stockholm with his wife, Neda Shafti Backman, and two children.
Sources: Simon & Schuster, LitLovers.com, the New York Times and the author’s website