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    And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer: A Novella
    And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer: A Novella
    And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer: A Novella
    Ebook70 pages49 minutes

    And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer: A Novella

    By Fredrik Backman

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    A little book with a big heart—from the New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove and Anxious People.

    “I read this beautifully imagined and moving novella in one sitting, utterly wowed, wanting to share it with everyone I know.” —Lisa Genova, bestselling author of Still Alice

    From the New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, Britt-Marie Was Here, and Anxious People 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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAtria Books
    Release dateNov 1, 2016
    ISBN9781501160578
    Author

    Fredrik Backman

    Fredrik Backman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, Britt-Marie Was Here, Beartown, Us Against You, and Anxious People, as well as two novellas and one work of nonfiction. His books are published in more than forty countries. He lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with his wife and two children. Connect with him on Facebook and Twitter @BackmanLand and on Instagram @Backmansk.

    Read more from Fredrik Backman

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    Reviews for And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer

    4.5/5

    819 ratings85 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This little story is a bit confusing to read but that it is fitting because the main character is a bit confused himself. The connection of grandfather to grandchild contains all these regrets about the relationship of grandfather to his own son and also beautiful connections to the grandchild.
    • 4/5
      I loved this short novella! It's about a man who is onset dementia/Alzheimer's. The story bounces from his brain with his grandson to the present with him in the hospital. Very sad and very informative what it may be like to experience what dementia may be like. Recommended
    • 5/5
      Fredrik Backman has been one of my favorite authors ever since I read A Man Called Ove. This novella is intensely beautiful. It's the story of a man and his grandson, a man and his son, and the process of losing one's memories through dementia. Sort of a cross between Tove Jansson's Summer Book and Tan Twan Eng's Garden of Evening Mists. I don't know how to share more without trying in vain to reproduce a feeling that is too precious to squander with retelling. Highly recommended
    • 5/5
      I was delighted to be able to read an advance copy of this novella as I am a big fan of the novels of Fredrik Backman. I read it all in one sitting and wish there had been more. I seem to particularly appreciate the curmudgeons in his novels, but, in this novella, the curmudgeon had turned into a sweetheart. There was something of a fairy tale atmosphere in the story, and we traded some of the humor of the other books for a very touching story.
    • 5/5
      A delightful read of a sad moment in the life and death of this person....very, very well done
    • 4/5
      Fredrik Backman is one of my favorite authors. He is great at making his characters seem like real people dealing with real feelings. In this emotional novella, we meet a grandfather with Alzheimer's struggling to retain his memories. He has a special relationship with his grandson, Noah, who promises his grandfather he will help him remember the things he wants to remember. Grandfather shares his memories of his wife, Noah's grandmother, so that Noah can remind him when he forgets them. He and Noah share a love and knowledge of mathematics which is such a joy to read. Mr. Backman says he wrote this to help deal with a loss in his life. It's so heartfelt and touching.
    • 3/5
      And Every Morning The Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman is the time that I have listened to or read one of Backman's Stories. This story is very short, I was very surprised at how short it was. I have been reading a lot of books about Dementia and Alzheimers. There are relatives on both sides of my family who have had those diseases. Also I now have Mild Cognitive Impairment so my chances for developing Alzheimers are four times a person without it. This story has a sweetness about it and there are two strong themes of love and fear. Tge three generations of the old man, his son and his grandson are experiencing losing their mind with its memories and thinking abilities or having a close relative who it. The language used by the grandpa was a good representation of beginning Alzheimers and later on. It is difficult to sort out time periods but that is to be expected. It does have beautiful messages but I was wanting more.I wanted more of the struggle that people going through this experience have. It just seems a little bit too positive for me. I will continue to read the authors's writings, just sending the message that some of what happens was left out.
    • 5/5
      This is a powerful, little book. You will need tissues, maybe lots of tissues. How do you deal with Alzheimer's? If you have it or you are a relative dealing with it - what do you do to help the person with Alzheimer's and at the same help your family to deal with it. Backman gives us his way - and it is powerful and hopeful.

      This short book, only 76 pages, is a perfect example of why Backman has become one of my favorite authors.

      I'm going to have to buy a case of these books to give to everyone because we all know someone who has had to deal with Alzheimer's or dementia.
    • 5/5
      Fredrik Backman has been one of my favorite authors for awhile, so there was no way I was going to decline Atria's offer of an ARC of his novella, And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer. In a Letter to the Reader, Backman discloses that the book was not initially intended for publication. I'd like to kiss the feet (metaphorically speaking) of the person who convinced him to share his meditation on memory and death with the rest of us.Backman describes his greatest fear as "imagination giving up before the body does"; substitute "the mind" for "imagination" and I think Backman has captured the zeitgeist of the Alzheimer's era, when we have the ability to perpetuate physical life long after the memory, the mind, the personality, is gone. "It's an awful thing to miss someone who's still here" belongs on a badge worn by every person with a loved one whose heart is still strong but whose eyes have lost their defining spark.This is a book you'll want to read in private, with a box of tissues close at hand (unless you don't mind fellow commuters watching your mascara streak down your face). Regardless of the setting you select, you need to read And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer. Trust me: Grandpa and Noah are not just characters, but people you won't soon forget.This review was based on a free ARC provided by the publisher.
    • 5/5
      And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman is a beautiful, very highly recommended, admirable novella. This is one of the best short stories I have read this year. I loved this little book. Loved it and sobbed while reading it, but they were good tears. It is amazing how Backman managed to capture so much emotion so perfectly. It's a story about love and tenderness and letting go and remembering and legacies and family and....Bachman introduces the story with a note to the readers, which is the best description of his story:"This is a story about memories and about letting go. It's a love letter and a slow farewell between a man and his grandson, and between a dad and his boy."I never meant for you to read it, to be quite honest. I wrote it just because I was trying to sort out my own thoughts, and I'm the kind of person who needs to see what I'm thinking on paper to make sense of it. But it turned into a small tale of how I'm dealing slowly with losing the greatest minds I know, about missing someone who is still here, and how I wanted to explain it to my children. I'm letting it go for now, for what it's worth."It's about fear and love, and how they seem to go hand in hand most of the time. Most of all, it's about time. While we still have it."This is novella is simply perfect, everything piece: the writing, the descriptions, the plot, the characters. In And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer, Fredrik Backman has given us a gift that deserves to be held dear and cherished.Disclosure: My advanced reading copy was courtesy of the publisher/author.
    • 3/5
      Tried three times and could not make it past page 40. I love his other books though.
    • 4/5
      A sweet, sad novella about a family coming to terms with grandpa getting Alzheimer's. Just a lovely little book.
    • 4/5
      This was a lovely short story, written with insight and tenderness. Beautiful quotes are scattered throughout the book. I especially loved and admired that way the author handled the ending. Really well done. A perfect read for a Sunday afternoon.
    • 4/5
      Fredrik Backman has earned the reputation for novels that have a feel-good theme. They are warm, funny, and really show the very best in human nature. This book is not your typical novel by Backman. First, it's short - really more of a long story. And the subject matter isn't about a community in distress or a curmudgeonly character who has an Ebeneezer Scrooge transformation. Instead, it's about an elderly man who enters that hazy world of dementia. My mother had Alzheimer's and it's sad and heartbreaking to see that gradual decline. So this book was a tough one for me, but it also gave me a slightly different perspective to see that even as the memories go, the true essence of the person remains. Beautifully written an very touching.
    • 5/5
      It's difficult to say anything about this novella - except that I urge you to read it. It's a beautiful story about a grandfather and his grandson, Noah (or Noahnoah as his grandfather calls him because he likes his name more than anyone else's) and the changes in their relationship as the grandfather is losing his memory and Noah is trying to help him remember all of the important parts of his life. I cried throughout the book and had to read it a second time as soon as I finished it - and I cried again. It is just so beautiful and sad and hopeful and lovely. One of my favorite lines (and there were many)"That's why we get the chance to spoil our grandchildren, because by doing that we're apologizing to our children."
    • 4/5
      When you love someone, and disease takes their mind before death does, you lose them over and over again, before the final lose (after which you lose them over and over again in your heart and memory.) It's hard enough as an adult to travel the journey with a loved one, but if you have children traveling with you, too, it's a different world. How do you explain that kind of loss, that death by forgetting, to a child, and yet manage to keep love alive and growing? From the notes in this novella, I suspect this is how Fredrik Backman worked out how he could do so. A beautiful little book.
    • 5/5
      I am not an overly sentimental person. I don't cry easily. And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer was one of the most beautiful, touching, incredible books I've ever read. I loved it so much I read it twice in one evening. It's a novella--very short--but it has more truth in it than any book I've ever read. In it I found my mother, my relationship with my husband and my son, everyone I've ever loved deeply. I found my own fears about growing old, and the truths about what it would be like. It is calm acceptance and utter wonder at the process we go through in living. My husband read it in the same evening and was as deeply moved by it as I was. I will read this book over and over again.
    • 4/5
      Absolutely beautiful and emotionally stunning. An old man, loosing his most precious memories, his grandson Noah, Noah and his son Ted, sitting on a park bench trying to connect, showing their love for this man who is grandfather, father. The words, phrases, thoughts, so incredibly poignant, wrap themselves around your heart. How do you explain what is happening to a young boy, how does a son help a father with something out of both their control? You talk, you remind, and you travel along with him. The memories, the fear, and a shared love. One would have to have a heart of stone to not be touched by this novella, especially when you read the author's comments at the front of the book. ARC from Netgalley.
    • 5/5
      An incredible short read, all you need is one sitting, and you will be left with one big smile!
    • 5/5
      Wonderful and sweet, any grandparent or parent will love this story. Everything Backman writes is magical.
    • 5/5
      A beautiful way to describe something so sad that someone many of us experience. Short and sweet.
    • 5/5
      OMG! This is my favorite Blackman book. So perfect, gentle and loving
    • 5/5
      Deeply touching, deeply human. I loved every single sentence !!!
    • 4/5
      This was a lovely novella. I really like this author.
    • 5/5
      Excellent book, read all at once and was amazed by the story!
    • 5/5
      Such an amazing book, so touching. This difficult subject is handled with such care, it's sad, yet full of hope. It's about love and life and all that comes with it. Off to read another book by the author.
    • 5/5
      Sweet love story between generations: grandfather, father, son and niece! Too short!
    • 5/5
      ugh what a tear jerker. i loved it. so sad
    • 5/5
      This short novel touches my hear more than I expected it too. But, as someone who's dad went on the road that, eventualy, led him away form the way home, it has a personal touch. Mr. Backman writes books about ordinary people. About ordinary situations. Which are special to the ordinary people within the stories as well as those reading them. Ordinarily extraordinary people leading extraordinarily ordinarily lives.
      This one touches souls.
    • 5/5
      A sad and beautiful short story of forgetting and remembrance.

    Book preview

    And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer - Fredrik Backman

    Cover: And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer, by Fredrik Backman

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    And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer, by Fredrik Backman, Atria

    Dear Reader,

    One of my idols once said, The worst part about growing old is that I don’t get any ideas anymore. Those words have never quite left me since I first heard them, because this would be my greatest fear: imagination giving up before the body does. I guess I’m not alone in this. Humans are a strange breed in the way our fear of getting old seems to be even greater than our fear of dying.

    This is a story about memories and about letting go. It’s a love letter and a slow farewell between a man and his grandson, and between a dad and his boy.

    I never meant for you to read it, to be quite honest. I wrote it just because I was trying to sort out my own thoughts, and I’m the kind of person who needs to see what I’m thinking on paper to make sense of it. But it turned into a small tale of how I’m dealing with slowly losing the greatest minds I know, about missing someone who is still here, and how I wanted to explain it all to my children. I’m letting it go now, for what it’s worth.

    It’s about fear and love, and how they seem to go hand in hand most of the time. Most of all, it’s about time. While we still have it. Thank you for giving this story yours.

    Fredrik Backman

    There’s a hospital room at the end of a life where someone, right in the middle of the floor, has pitched a green tent. A person wakes up inside it, breathless and afraid, not knowing where he is. A young man sitting next to him whispers:

    Don’t be scared.

    Isn’t that the best of all life’s ages, an old man thinks as he looks at his grandchild. When a boy is just big enough to know how the world works but still young enough to refuse to accept it. Noah’s feet don’t touch the ground when his legs dangle over the edge of the bench, but his head reaches all the way to space, because he hasn’t been alive long enough to allow anyone to keep his thoughts on Earth. His grandpa is next to him and is incredibly old, of course, so old now that people have given up and no longer nag him to start acting like an adult. So old that it’s too late to grow up. It’s not so bad either, that age.

    The bench is in a square; Noah blinks heavily at the sunrise beyond it, newly woken. He doesn’t want to admit to Grandpa that he doesn’t know where they are, because this has always been their game: Noah closes his eyes and Grandpa takes him somewhere they’ve never been before. Sometimes the boy has to squeeze his eyes tight, tight shut while he and Grandpa change buses four times in town, and sometimes Grandpa just takes him straight into the woods behind the house

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