"A Man Called Ove" by Fredrik Backman Quiz

Answer: iPad

When we first meet Ove, he is trying to buy an iPad. We learn that he is fifty-nine years old and very set in his ways. As he interacts with the sales associate, we are shown bits of his personality - difficult, stubborn, opinionated, untrusting of other people's abilities and definitely not savvy when it comes to technology.

It is a revealing and funny introduction to the main character who is essentially a grumpy old man.

Answer: She is dead.

Ove constantly talks to his wife, asks her opinion, and does little things around the house that she would either like or that would annoy her. We find out that she died of cancer six months ago and he misses her very much. As he thinks back to their courtship and life together, he describes his life as being in black and white and his wife bringing color into it.

He misses her so much that he frequently visits her grave to speak to her and constantly thinks about her. He hasn't packed up or cleaned out anything in the house that belonged to her.

Answer: To hang himself

Ove has decided that he has nothing left to live for and so he decides to hang himself. Not only did he lose the love of his life but he also lost his job. He has no children, no friends and a mundane routine of nosing about everyone else's business but nothing that brings him joy or friendship.

He very carefully hangs a sturdy hook, closes his curtains, lays down a cover over his floor, puts on his best suit and places a noose around his neck. He does go through with the act of trying to kill himself but the rope he uses breaks and so he lives. Throughout the book, he tries a number of different ways to kill himself so that he can be with his wife again, but he is thwarted every time by other people who need his help. Ove is a man of honor and responsibility and so every time he is asked for help, he feels compelled to do so.

This in turn ends up helping him overcome his grief.

Answer: Cat

A mangy looking cat starts hanging around Ove's house and seems to come and go as it pleases. The cat is not bothered by Ove but Ove is very bothered by its presence. He yells at it, kicks at it and throws things at it. After it suffers frostbite and needs to be cared for, he ends up begrudgingly taking it in and looking after it. Ironically, his wife loved cats.

When Ove met his wife, she cared very much for a rather large cat named Ernest (named for the author Ernest Hemingway) who came and went as he pleased at her father's house. Tragically, she lost her father and Ernest within a few days of each other, leaving her heartbroken.

Answer: Train station

As a young man Ove had a job as a night cleaner of trains. After one shift in particular, he sees a woman get on a train and, contrary to anything he'd ever done before, he gets on the train and sits down next to her. She is personable and engaging and starts talking to him.

He lies about where he works and rides over an hour in the wrong direction so that he cam spend time with her. He does this every day for the next three months until she finally asks him out to dinner. When they go out for dinner, he tells her the truth about his work and is surprised when she doesn't get mad that he had lied to her.

Answer: Spain

Ove and Sonja are on a vacation together in Spain and, at the time, Sonja is pregnant with their child. They go on a bus tour together and this is a pivotal moment for Ove. He remembers feeling the movement of his unborn baby for the first time just before he got up out of his seat to use the bus toilet.

While he is out of his seat, the bus is in an accident which ends up seriously injuring Sonja and causing her to lose the baby. As a result of the accident she falls into a coma. When she wakes up, she can no longer walk and they can't have any other children.

Answer: BMW

Ove and Rune are alternately friends and in battle with each other. Their friendship is defined by the types of cars that they both drive. Ove is a Saab man and has a difficult time trusting people who don't drive a Saab. Rune is a Volvo man. They both purchase different models of their respective favorite cars through the years, upgrading and competing with each other as they do. Anita and Rune, like Sonja and Ove, suffer heartbreak over a lost child. Rune buys a sporty BMW that is meant for two and this seems to push Ove over the edge.

The two men never talk about their sadness or their loss but instead allow a large rift to develop in their relationship.

Answer: White shirts

People in white shirts are typically people in bureaucracies or positions of power that blindly and inhumanely follow rules. Ove has had run-ins with these white-shirt wearing people over his first home, insurance policies, benefits for his wife and a ramp at the school where she taught. Anita and Rune are having their own troubles with people in white shirts who are looking to take Rune away from his home because he has dementia. Ove decides that he has had enough of being bullied by people like this and resolves to do something to help out Anita and Rune.

Answer: Parvaneh

Parvaneh and Patrick move in with their two young daughters who are aged three and seven. At first Ove wants nothing to do with them (similar to his approach to everyone else), but Parvaneh is a very outgoing person who constantly reaches out to Ove to ask for help.

He ends up helping her and Patrick out, babysits their two girls and teaches Parvaneh to drive. He develops a relationship with the two girls and becomes a grandfather figure to them. Parvaneh is significant in helping Ove overcome his sadness and isolation.

Answer: Yes

Under extreme duress, Ove relents and agrees to an interview with her. Ove saves a man who has fallen on the train tracks only because he has intended to kill himself by jumping in front of a train. As events transpire, Ove does not commit suicide but walks away from the train station after saving the man.

A young journalist named Lena tracks Ove down to interview him. Several times he refuses but ends up soliciting Lena's help to keep Rune at home instead of being forced into an institution. Lena helps in exchange for an interview with Ove.

He makes the front page of the newspaper but refuses to smile "like a donkey for the camera."