Am letzten Tag des Jahres findet in einer kleinen Stadt eine Wohnungsbesichtigung statt. Ausgerechnet an diesem Tag, an dem jede und jeder eigentlich anderes zu tun hätte.
Mitten hinein in diese Besichtigung platzt ein Bankräuber. Er hat gerade versucht, 6.500 Kronen von der Bank gegenüber zu rauben, dabei aber übersehen, dass es sich um eine bargeldlose Bank handelt. Es war nicht die Absicht, Geiseln zu nehmen, aber nun ist es so. Und so untypisch der Bankräuber, so untypisch sind die vermeintlichen Geiseln. Denn von denen hat jede ihren eigenen Kopf – und ihre eigene Geschichte.
“Zara did a circuit of the apartment, trying to look interested, the way she had seen people who actually wanted to buy the apartments look. That was quite a challenge for her, seeing as only someone on drugs who collected fingernail clippings could possibly be interested in living in this particular apartment. (…) Two married couples were wandering around, trying to ignore all the rather ugly furniture and instead visualize their own really ugly furniture in its place. The older couple had been married for a long time, but the younger couple seemed to have only got married recently. You can always tell by the way people who love each other argue: the longier they‘ve been together, the fewer words they need to start a fight.“
Die Wohnungsbesichtiger haben völlig unterschiedliche Gründe, warum sie diese Wohnung anschauen. Backman erzählt nach und nach diese Gründe, eingebettet in die Geschichten der Protagonisten. Und versteckt dabei viele wahre und nachdenkenswerte Sätze, wie diese:
“That‘s an impossible thing for sons to grasp, and a source of shame for fathers to have to admit: that we don‘t want our children to pursue their own dreams or walk in our footsteps. We want to walk in their footsteps while they pursue our dreams.“
„When you‘re a child you long to be an adult and decide everything for yourself, but when you‘re an adult you realize that‘s the worst part of it.“
„We‘ve created lives where we can watch other people crash into the wall but still hope that somehow we‘re going to pass straight through it.“
“Nothing is easier for people who never do anything themselves than to criticize someone who actually makes an effort.“
“You end up marrying the one you don‘t understand. Then you spend the rest of your life trying.“
Nein, Backman reiht auf 390 Seiten nicht Weisheit an Weisheit, wie es in der Aufzählung scheinen mag. Er beobachtet, und erzählt, was er in Menschen sieht. Das ist berührend – und es ist sehr komisch. „Anxious People“ ist – neben Harper Lee’s „Wer die Nachtigall stört“ – das beste Buch, das ich in diesem Jahr gelesen habe.
“The truth, of course, is that if people really were as happy as they look on the Internet, they wouldn’t spend so much damn time on the Internet, because no one who‘s having a really good day spends half of it taking pictures of themselves. Anyone can nurture a myth about their life if they have enough manure, so if the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence, that‘s probably because it‘s full of shit.“
