A review by sharkybookshelf
Barbara Isn't Dying by Alina Bronsky

2.0

Walter Schmidt has proudly spent his whole marriage firmly entrenched in clear gender roles, and has never cooked, cleaned or done any other household chores - until one day, his wife Barbara is taken ill and he is forced to figure out how to make himself coffee…

I usually avoid referencing other books in my reviews as it’s not exactly helpful to anybody who hasn’t read it, but I’m going to make an exception here. This felt like German knock-off of Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called Ove. But with a main character who was far more of a truly odious curmudgeon and no real pay-off - the MC was just a total dick pretty much until the end.

There was some levity such as when Schmidt tries to use Facebook and the commentary around his attitude towards Poles was cleverly done, but it was not enough to rescue the story.

That’s all I really have to say about this one. Basically, if you want a book with a curmudgeonly or intransigent MC, choose one of Fredrik Backman’s standalone novels instead.