Aren’t We All A Bit Anxious?

By Prisha Nanda

Edited By Nandana

At first glance, Anxious People may seem like a mystery novel. There’s a bank robber, a hostage situation, and police officers ready to solve the case. Okay, fine, it is a mystery novel, just a very odd one. Let me clarify, the bank robber couldn’t rob the bank; the hostage situation took place not in the bank but in an apartment, and the police officers seem just as bewildered as the reader. But despite what it may seem like, this book isn’t about crime (regardless of how many were committed). It’s one about people. People who are stubborn, hopeful, heartbroken, or self-righteous, even if in the most infuriating ways. It’s a story about anxious people.

When I started reading this book, I was confused. The writing style threw me off, four different tangents were happening on one page, and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why some bank manager named Zara’s therapy sessions were relevant. But that’s exactly what Backman does. He writes with the kind of patience none of us have. Every awkward pause, every repressed memory, every joke that didn’t land—everything carries meaning. Each loose thread is woven back into the fabric by the time the reader reaches the final page.

Though it’s framed as a mystery, instead of solving the puzzle, the author turns the magnifying glass on the people. That’s the moment you, as a reader, realise that you’re not hunting for the answer, you’re sitting with it and trying not to cry as you face the same truth as the characters you’re reading about do. There's no big twist or reveal, rather a quiet click like puzzle pieces snapping together or the feeling you get when you can finally tell the joke you’ve been waiting to tell all day. And maybe that’s why I enjoyed it so much. Because it got me to slow down. To sit in a room full of strangers who stop feeling like strangers because of a bank robber’s (very valid) existential crisis. To notice how everybody feels pain in different ways, yet watching them learn how to share it. Or to realise that sometimes healing can sound a lot like arguing over which pizza to get while you're stuck in a hostage situation.