Anxious people : a novel / Fredrik Backman ; translated by Neil Smith.

Translation of: Folk med �angest.

An apartment open house becomes a life-or-death situation when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes eight extremely anxious strangers hostage. The captives include a retired couple who hunt down fixer-uppers to avoid the painful truth that they can't fix up their own marriage, a wealthy banker who has been too busy making money to care about anyone else, a young couple who are about to have their first baby but can't seem to agree on anything, an eighty-year old woman who has lived long enough not to be afraid of someone waving a gun in her face, a flustered, but still-ready-to-make-a-deal real estate agent, and a mystery man who has locked himself in the apartment's only bathroom. As the authorities and media surround the premises, these reluctant allies will reveal surprising truths about themselves and set in motion a chain of events so surprising that even they can't explain what happens next.