Does A MAN CALLED OVE live up to the hype?

This episode's pick: A Man Called Ove follows Ove, a rigid and irritable man whose carefully ordered life is disrupted when new neighbours move in next door. As the story moves between present-day encounters and moments from Ove’s past, we begin to understand the experiences that shaped him, including his sad childhood and one great love. It’s a character-driven story about grief, love, and finding community.

This week’s guest - is our friend Sally Hepworth (It’s true - Rach even has her phone number). We met Sally in the early days of her writing career and have watched her soar from height to height. Sally has now written TEN novels, including her latest Mad Mabel, hit The New York Times Bestseller list multiple times, and had her novel The Family Next Door adapted for TV, with more projects in the works. She’s based in Melbourne with her family and, despite all her success, is still the same warm, down-to-earth, utterly lovely human we first met all those years ago.

In this episode, we cover:

How perimenopause wreaks havoc with writing.

Is this a quiet novel?

How specificity elevates a story.

How to write humour that isn’t cruel.

Is the setting important?

Differences between American and Australian readers

Sally’s reading loves and hates.

💋 And, of course, we rate A MAN CALLED OVE: Kiss, Kill, or Marry?

Which way did the votes fall? You’ll have to listen in…

📚 Books Mentioned in this Ep

The Hiding Place – Kate Mildenhall

Babysitters Club - Ann M. Martin

Anything by Enid Blyton

Tully – Paullina Simons

Anything by Marian Keyes

The Gambler – JP Pomare

The Names – Florence Knapp

Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens

Red Belly Crossing - Candace Fox

⏰ Timestamps

1.0 Welcome to Sweden!

2.21 Intro Sally Hepworth and her mate, Mad Mabel!

4.00 Sally’s bio and her divorce dog.

5.58 Fredrik Backman – way funnier than his bio would suggest.

8.25 A Man Called Ove – a blurb put together with an Allen key and a

bit of swearing.

9.57 Good Reads – almost 1.2 million people can’t be wrong…

10.49 Kiss, Kill, Marry – (just make sure you have consent).

12.08 We suspect Sally has a crush on Ove.

16.52 Anthea makes a sporting analogy, (because she knows a tonne

about sport and is keen to share).

19.12 Hands off, Sally! Rachael loves Ove, too, and shares a beautiful

quote for all the handymen out there.

25.41 Sally talks about being funny, without actually being funny. Alanis

Morrisette would regard that as irony.

27.50 Sally recommends…

35.40 Reviews – the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

37.38 Backman scores a Did Not Finish review. Ikea closes its doors in

solidarity.

38.00 Sally confirms that Australian audiences are just BETTER. (Not

really, but we knew what she meant)

40.36 Rachael tricks Sally into giving us free writing advice. #masterclass

42.43 HOMEWORK.. Don’t pack up – the bell hasn’t gone yet…

📖 Coming up next:

👉Next Ep (14th Jan) Rach And Anthea grill each other in the way they normally grill their guests.

Our first guest for the year is Virtually Annie (Jan 28th) - she’s making us reading Circe by Madeleine Miller and we hope you’ll read it to.

In February, we’re diving into The Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Laurie Gilmore (Feb 14th) and guest author Kayte Nunn will make us read My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Feb 28th).

And here’s our list for the first half of 2026.

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☕ If you’re loving the show, we’d be so grateful if you’d buy us a coffee (or a prosecco). It helps keep the pod fun, frequent, and free.

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