50 pages • 1 hour read
Fredrik BackmanAnxious People
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 66-74Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 66 Summary
The narrative flashes back to the hostage scene. Fireworks start going off outside the apartment, per the bank robber’s request. Estelle appreciates them and thinks that “Knut would have loved them” (302). Everyone tries to think of ways that the bank robber can escape, and it’s revealed that the real estate agent will also soon be selling the apartment across the hall. This means that it’s vacant and could be a hiding spot. Unfortunately, the real estate agent doesn’t have a key for the bank robber to get in.
Estelle informs everyone that they’re all in her apartment; she requested a showing to ease her loneliness, and she pretended Knut was out parking the car so that she could live in the illusion that he’s still alive. She reveals that she has a key to the vacant apartment because it once belonged to the man with whom she had an emotional affair.
The hostages walk out of the apartment, feeling good in knowing that the bank robber will escape. They walk past Jim in the hallway. After they exit the building, Jim and the bank robber exchange a long glance. She tells him that his secret about helping her is safe. She goes into the vacant apartment, and Jim thinks about his wife and hopes she is “proud of him” (310).
Chapter 67 Summary
Jim has finished telling Jack everything that happened. Jack “wants to be angry” (311), but instead he goes outside to make a statement to the reporters. He covers for his father and says that the bank robber got away and that he takes full responsibility for this. Afterward, “They’ll go home. Watch television. Have a beer together” (312).
Chapter 68 Summary
Estelle expresses her gratitude for having met the other hostages. She’s happy to be keeping her apartment instead of selling it. Lennart says that there’s “something romantic about the thought of all the apartments that aren’t for sale” (313). His words capture the general sentiment of the moment between the newfound friends.
The narrator provides an overview of the characters’ futures: Ro’s father will die soon, but she’ll make a good mother to her soon-to-be-born son because she will rob banks “if necessary” for him. Julia and Ro’s marriage will “continue to be a flower shop” (314). Zara and Lennart will ride in a taxi together, and the narrator implies that this is the start of something romantic between them. Roger will take Anna-Lena to a movie, which is a gesture of his love for her. Estelle will invite the bank robber and her daughters to move into the apartment with her and will cover the robber’s rent. Estelle will eventually die, but she will have touched the lives of Julia, Ro, the bank robber, and the bank robber’s daughters.
The narrator also says that the bank robber prevented another bank robbery from happening. She found the pistol she used hidden among blankets in a basement storage area where she once went to decompress when anxious. Because she took the pistol, the gun’s real owner couldn’t carry out a bank robbery the day after New Year’s.
Chapter 69 Summary
Nadia talks to her father on the phone, and it’s implied that he’s Roger. Zara admits to Nadia that she quit her job and hopes to move on to something new. Nadia can see that something big has happened in Zara because she’s had a deep change of heart. She feels connected to Zara in this moment and confidently says, “We’re not going to die, you and I” (320).
Zara hands Nadia the unopened letter from the man on the bridge who died by suicide. She finally feels ready to hear what it says, and she asks Nadia to read it.
Chapter 70 Summary
Zara drops the letter off the bridge and watches it fall into the water. The letter said, “It wasn’t your fault” (323). She gets into a car with Lennart afterward.
Chapter 71 Summary
The bank robber thinks back to a story written by her daughter. It was about a princess who felt torn between two kingdoms, and it reflected the girl’s anxieties about feeling divided between her parents during the divorce. This explains why the bank robber tried to quietly rob a bank and why she submissively gave so much to her ex-husband. She would rather have nothing than make her daughters feel the chaos of fighting and division. After the robbery, when they’re living with Estelle, she finally finds peace for herself and her daughters.
Chapter 72 Summary
One day, the bank robber and her daughters are walking outside. Jim and Jack drive by in their police car, and the bank robber is terrified that they’re going to arrest her. However, they just keep driving. Jim says that he would have understood if Jack wanted to arrest her. Jack says that he doesn’t want to; he just “wanted to see her, so there were two of us in this” (330). Jack tells his father that they’re going to get coffee and then drive to bring his sister home. The narrator says that maybe they’ll save her and maybe they won’t, but the important thing is that people try to “save those [they] can” (332).
Chapter 73 Summary
Jack shows up at Nadia’s office because he received an anonymous letter with her address on it and a picture of the bridge. The letter is really from Zara. When Nadia answers his knock at the door, he realizes she’s the girl he saved on the bridge so many years ago. He hands her the letter that’s also anonymously from Zara. She reads it and realizes that he’s the boy who saved her. The narrator makes it clear that this is the start of a deeper connection between Nadia and Jack.
The narrator also reveals that Zara donated most of her fortune to the summer camp that Nadia attends each year.
Chapter 74 Summary
The narrator directly addresses the audience and says, “We’re doing the best we can, we really are” (336), and we shouldn’t be so hard on ourselves because at least “we made it through this day” (336).
Chapters 66-74 Analysis
These chapters bring resolution to the emotional character arcs that have been building throughout the novel. The narrator accomplishes this by providing commentary regarding what the characters are doing and thinking and how these actions and thoughts connect to the future of each character. The hostage drama is the catalyst for these emotional changes because it provides a space for each character to talk about their feelings. By talking with strangers, they realize that they have more in common than not and that their situations aren’t as isolating as they previously thought. Indeed, their very sense that they are alone and imprisoned becomes the basis for shared understanding, developing the theme of “Stockholm Syndrome,” Captivity, and Empathy.
The emotional resolutions that each character experiences are both personal and familial. After the hostage drama, Jack comes to terms with his inability to save the man on the bridge because he realizes that the best he can do is try to save others. His father inspires this change in him. While Jack was busy trying to catch someone he believed to be a criminal, his father was saving a woman’s life by giving her a second chance. For the first time, Jack realizes that saving people is more complicated than adhering to a good versus bad binary, and this inspires him to try to save his sister again. Jack also benefits from his encounter with Nadia. Seeing her again makes him realize that his past efforts to save people weren’t in vain.
Julia and Ro and Roger and Anna-Lena are couples who mend their relationships during the hostage situation. They each argue with their significant others while in the apartment, but they all have the time and space to interact with strangers who understand what they are going through. After leaving the apartment, each couple’s relationship is reinvigorated, with deeper understanding and compassion between the partners.
Estelle and Zara are women who are struggling with personal anxieties at the start of the hostage situation, but by the end, they leave with a renewed sense of hope for the future. Estelle’s newfound friendships with Julia, Ro, and the bank robber allow her to find comfort and companionship, thereby easing her feelings of loneliness from Knut’s death. Zara’s newfound connection with Lennart and the honesty she shows Nadia give her the confidence and encouragement she needs to address her guilt in healthy ways.
The narrator ends the novel by directly addressing the audience, something that they’ve done throughout the story. The narrator includes themself as someone who’s “looking for something to cling to” and in doing so identifies themself as analogous to both the characters and the reader (336). This underscores the novel’s point about connection and shared frailties, but it also subtly points to the theme of Challenging Preconceptions. An omniscient narrator may also come across as omnipotent and therefore more godlike than human. This omniscient narrator, however, invites readers to see them as a peer.
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By Fredrik Backman
