59 pages 1 hour read

Fredrik Backman

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013

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Chapters 16-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 16 Summary: “Dust”

Elsa, The Monster, and the wurse walk for two hours to reach the address on the envelope, which turns out to be a therapist’s office. The office is empty, so Elsa and The Monster wait for the therapist to return.

Elsa again prods The Monster for some information about his past. He tells her that Granny rescued him from a refugee camp. After a series of bad foster homes, he came to live in her building. She told him the same fairy tales that she later told Elsa about the Land-of-Almost-Awake and the kingdom of Miamas. The Monster tells Elsa that Miamas means “I love” in his mother’s language. Elsa realizes that all the trips Granny took during Mum’s childhood were attempts to find The Monster’s mother. This upsets Elsa, who says, “My grandmother was also someone’s mother. Did you ever think about that?” (167).

The therapist arrives, and she turns out to be the woman in the black skirt. Elsa gives her the letter from Granny. As the woman leads Elsa into her office, Elsa looks around for The Monster, whom she now calls Wolfheart, but he has vanished.