My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry

My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry  by Fredrik Backman (2015) 372 pages

Precocious Elsa, seven years old, is often the adult to her grandmother's inner child. They share a made-up language as well as a make-believe universe. When her grandmother dies of cancer, Elsa is left with a treasure hunt of sorts, with letters to find and deliver to people her grandmother had known, most from their apartment building. Some of the letters are very difficult for Elsa to deliver, going to people like the man she'd dubbed The Monster. Delivering these letters gives Elsa a view into parts of her grandmother's life she never knew about.

In addition to mourning the loss of her fiercest champion, Elsa is not looking forward to the birth of her half-sibling, or to returning to school‒where she is constantly bullied for being different‒after the winter holiday.

I feel this story depicts the inner working of a child's mind so well. Backman's first novel, A Man Called Ove is now on my "must-read" list.