Britt-Marie was here

What can I say? Frederick Backman has done it again. This book is superb! Backman's writing is flawless. He is a master of his craft. But let me stop gushing and get to specifics.

In this novel, the main character Britt-Marie has left her husband after learning of his infidelity and taken a job as the caretaker of a recreation center in the small village of Borg. She reluctantly becomes the coach (in name only) of the local youth soccer team. Her experience in this small, rural area changes her for the better.

The character of Britt-Marie is now one of my favorites. She is obsessively clean and neat, brutally honest and blunt, stubbornly adherent to routines, and completely socially inept. I absolutely adore her! With her love of window cleaner (Faxin, preferably) and lists (written in pencil, of course) and her polite conversations with a rat (over a plate of Snickers), she works her way into the heart of the reader. I found myself laughing out loud after some of her totally inappropriate statements. In spite of her flaws, she is a lovable character. She stands by the people she cares about and forms a heartwarming relationship with two children in need of support and their troubled older brother. Her development from a woman completely lost without the anchor of her marriage to the self-assured "coach" of the village soccer team is a wonder to witness.

The setting of this book serves as the perfect backdrop for the story of Britt-Marie's evolution. The village of Borg is falling into shambles. The people are mostly out of work and the council is shutting down buildings left and right, but there is a spirit of survival in the village that matches Britt-Marie's spirit. The soccer team is definitely the underdog when competing, but the whole village rallies around them and is revived through the excitement of the team playing for the regional cup. Her time spent with this team and the rest of the villagers softens Britt-Marie's rough edges and helps her to see that she can be a part of something beyond her marital experience. She gains a passion for something other than her mundane daily routine of cleaning and organizing.

This book gets 5 stars from me. Frederick Backman is now an auto-buy author for me. I cannot wait for his next novel.