The Deal of a Lifetime

by Fredrik Backman

Maybe everyone feels that way about their hometown: the place we’re from never apologizes, never admits that it was wrong about us.

When five-year-old girls die, no one writes about that, there aren’t any memorials in the evening papers, their feet are still too small, they haven’t had time to make anyone care about their footsteps yet.

I, who had wanted to live a life high above everyone else, ended up with a son who would rather live deep beneath the surface.

I abandoned you, but at least I abandoned you at the top of the hierarchy of needs.

function. Happy people don’t create anything, their world is one without art and music and skyscrapers, without discoveries and innovations. All leaders, all of your heroes, they’ve been obsessed. Happy people don’t get obsessed, they don’t devote their lives to curing illnesses or making planes take off. The happy leave nothing behind. They live for the sake of living, they’re only on earth as consumers.