Wrong book?

A Man Called Ove is a novel by Frederik Backman, a Swedish columnist, blogger and writer. It was published in English in 2013. It's about a grouchy 59-year-old man named Ove who's been laid off from work and lives alone. The Complete and Total Loser is a grouchy 59-year-old man named Loser who's been laid off from work and lives alone. He is breezing through this book, which he avoided reading for years.

The A Man Called Ove book jacket.

It's predictable as can be. After just a few days, the Loser, who is a very slow reader, is nearly halfway through it but he can see where the plot lines are going. That's usually be a negative, but here it's a positive; you know Ove is going to end up happier than when he started, but that's OK and the pleasure you get from the book is watching the journey.
This morning, the Loser was listening to a local psychologist talk about a study that shows how relationships had a more positive impact on overall health than even genetics. A big part of this probably has much to do with the idea of others making sure you eat right and take action when you have a medical problem. The Loser knows a woman who, like the Loser, has always been alone (and no, there is no chance the two will ever be together—none) and is doing nothing to deal with her breast cancer.
A Man Called Ove was made into a movie in 2015. The Loser just watched the trailer and it nearly moved him to tears even though it was in Swedish with no subtitles and he couldn't understand a word.
The greatest difference between Ove and the Loser, by the way, is that Ove had love in his life for many years. The Loser never did.