Title: The Deal of a Lifetime
Author: Fredrik Backman
Genre: Fantasy / Short Story
Year Published: 2017
Number of Pages: 65 pages
Date Read: 12/9/2017
Publisher: Atria Books
Source: Purchased
Content Rating: Ages 15+ (Themes of Death and Parental Abandonment)
Buy on: Amazon // Book Depository
“The only thing of value on Earth is time. One second will always be a second, there’s no negotiating with that.”
Now, I have been hearing so many good things about Fredrik Backman’s works for a while,
especially “A Man Called Ove” and “Bear
Town.” Even though I haven’t read either book yet (do not worry, that day
will come), I still managed to stumble upon one of his books called “The Deal of a Lifetime” and man, was I
totally blown away by this book!
The story starts out with
a father telling his son the story about how he met a little girl in the
hospital, who has cancer and about how he had actually taken a life away from
someone. Well, that is not the full
story: it turns out that the father had a dark past where he abandoned his wife
and son for a life of fame and fortune many years ago. But, when the father ended up in the hospital
and he find out that the little girl who was in the hospital because of her
cancer, might not live long enough to experience life, the father decides that
he must do something to ensure that the little girl survives, even if it means
sacrificing his own life!
Wow! This book is simply amazing for one short
novella! Fredrik Backman has done an excellent job at writing this story as
I was seriously hoping that the father in the story would find some way to help
out the little girl who has cancer, while trying to appreciate the importance
of life and family. I loved the fact
that Fredrik Backman focused on
developing the father character in the book as it shows that the father went
from thoughtlessly abandoning his family to pursue a life of fame and fortune
to trying to sacrifice his own happiness to ensure that the little girl
survives and it made me really connect to his character throughout the story.
Despite the fact that this novel is extremely short (only sixty-five pages long)
Fredrik Backman did a great job at writing
out a full story about a father’s journey to becoming a more selfless person
and it felt like the story really fleshed out the father’s character.
The only problem I had
with this book is that the narrative tends to get a bit confusing at times,
especially with the fact that the father is telling the story, but he is also
telling the story to his son. Because of
this, the story tends jump from the father’s point of view to the son’s point
of view at the drop of a hat and it could confuse some readers about what is
really happening in the story.
Overall, “The
Deal of a Lifetime” is a truly fantastic story about redemption and
learning about the importance of family and happiness that fans of Fredrik Backman’s works will enjoy!
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