Ove is fifty-nine. He has strict rules about parking, trash, and the right way to do things. His wife Sonja has died, he has been forced to retire, and he no longer sees a reason to stay alive.
The novel first shows Ove’s hard surface: stubborn, judgmental, and angry at a changing world. Beneath that surface is grief and a man who once loved deeply.
Ove's grumpiness is a mask for loss. The world will keep interrupting his isolation, and those interruptions become the beginning of rescue.