And Every Morning The Way Home Gets Longer and Longer

And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer

 by Fredrik Backman

     How does one approach a book when the author tells you he never intended for you to be reading it? The author tells it all in his letter to the reader.  This is a story about remembering and letting go. It’s a story about a grandfather and a grandson, a father and a son. It’s about living and not living.

     Grandpa and Noahnoah (Grandpa says his name twice because, he says, he likes his name twice as much as everyone else’s) are closer than Grandpa was to his own son, Ted. But isn’t that the way of it?  We’re so busy working and building a life and caring for our children we forget how to enjoy them.  When we get to be grandparents we are given our second chance, our chance to get it right.   This is not lost on Grandpa.  He knows he became someone different when Noah was born. 

     They spend their days loving mathematics, talking, exploring the mysteries of life and talking about life and death.  They slowly come to understand, never fearing to ask the questions a young boy has about life and what comes after.  They are trying to learn how to say good-bye perfectly.

     Grandpa knows what’s happening to him.  He knows his square is getting smaller and smaller and his biggest concern is how to explain to Noah that someday he won’t be here anymore. His body will be but his mind won’t. He asks Noah when he gets his good-bye down perfect to not look back, to live his life forward.  Grandpa needn’t have worried so.  Noah is so dedicated to his Grandpa that even though Grandpa doesn’t realize it, Noah is still his best friend. His truest friend in life.

     This is a novella.  It’s only 76 pages long.  You can finish it in an evening but I promise you, it will stay with you long after.