And Every Morning The Way Home Gets Longer And Longer

And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer: A Novella by Swedish author Fredrik Backman was first published in 2016 and translated into English by Alice Menzies. A contemporary literary novella, the text centers on the emotional and psychological effects of progressive memory loss within a multigenerational family, focusing on the relationships between a grandfather, his young grandson, and his adult son. Backman, best known for his emotionally grounded explorations of community, aging, and interpersonal connection, draws on personal experience to depict cognitive decline through metaphor, imagination, and intimate domestic detail. Blending realism with symbolic and surrealist narrative techniques, the novella examines themes of Memory Loss as the Erasure of Identity, Love as an Anchor Against Cognitive Decline, and The Emotional Labor of Letting Go.

This guide uses the eBook version of And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer written by Fredrik Backman, translated by Alice Menzies, and published by Atria Books in 2016.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of illness, mental illness, and death.

Plot Summary

And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer follows the cognitive decline of an elderly man known as Grandpa, told through a nonlinear narrative that blends physical reality with imagined interior spaces. The novella opens in a hospital room, where Grandpa wakes in fear, disoriented and unable to understand where he is. His grandson, Noah, sits beside him and gently reassures him.

Much of the narrative unfolds within a shared imaginative space that Grandpa and Noah occupy together. This space often takes the form of a circular square with a bench at its center, representing Grandpa’s mind. The square shifts in size and structure, expanding or contracting without warning. Grandpa and Noah treat this space as part of a familiar game in which Noah closes his eyes and Grandpa “takes” him somewhere new. In the past, these journeys involved maps, compasses, and problem-solving, but as Grandpa’s mind deteriorates, such tools no longer function.

Within this imagined world, Noah is portrayed as an imaginative child, while Grandpa is described as being so old that social expectations no longer apply to him. Objects scattered around the square—keys, desks, and animals from Noah’s childhood—appear without explanation. Grandpa becomes distressed when he cannot remember what the keys are for, and he sometimes bleeds without understanding why.

The narrative frequently shifts to scenes involving Grandpa’s late wife, Grandma, who appears within the imagined space. When Grandpa walks with her along a road that leads “Home,” they are both young again. Grandma reassures Grandpa and helps him reflect on his life, their marriage, and his fears about explaining his illness to Noah. Grandpa expresses regret that he did not have enough time with her, while Grandma insists that she spent her entire life with him.

As the story progresses, the imagined space grows increasingly unstable. Buildings appear that Grandpa identifies as “archives,” where important memories are stored but where papers also blow away. Grandpa compares his brain to a fading star, explaining that just as light continues traveling after a star begins to die, awareness of cognitive decline lags behind the loss itself. Through these changes, Noah tries to remain calm and supportive, often using humor or recalling shared memories to comfort his grandfather.

The narrative shifts into the perspective of Ted, Grandpa’s adult son and Noah’s father. Ted appears with Grandpa in scenes that blur the line between memory and reality. In one such scene, Grandpa and Ted are in a garden that smells of hyacinths, where Grandpa becomes confused and mistakes Ted for a child. Ted grows frustrated and hurt, revealing unresolved resentment toward his father for being emotionally absent during Ted’s childhood. Grandpa recalls teaching Noah many things he never had time to teach Ted, intensifying Ted’s sense of loss and anger.

As Grandpa’s condition worsens, fear becomes a recurring undercurrent. Grandpa worries about forgetting Grandma and about leaving Noah before he dies. Noah responds with emotional maturity, framing forgetting as an opportunity to get to know each other again. Grandma describes Noah as a bridge between Grandpa and Ted.

The imagined space gives way to physical reality when Grandpa is taken to the hospital after an accident. Here, the narrative becomes increasingly grounded in real-world scenes. Ted explains to Noah that Grandpa’s brain is no longer working the way it used to and that they need to be careful and patient with him. Noah observes that Grandpa’s “way home” is getting longer every morning.

In a moment of crisis, Grandpa becomes agitated in the hospital, insisting that he needs to work and asking for cigarettes he quit years ago. Ted struggles to calm him but reassures Grandpa that they will go home soon. Grandpa recognizes Ted briefly, calling him “Tedted,” and asks about his guitar, signaling a lingering emotional connection even as his memory fades.

The story concludes with a return to the hospital room, where Grandpa wakes inside a green tent pitched in the middle of the floor. Noah sits beside him and explains who they are. Rather than asking Grandpa to remember, Noah recounts key moments from Grandpa’s life—teaching him to ride a bike, loving Grandma deeply, quitting smoking to become a father, and sharing jokes. Grandpa listens, comforted, as Ted plays the guitar nearby.

The novella ends with the family sleeping together in the tent, surrounded by the smell of hyacinths. Grandpa is no longer oriented in the world, but he is not alone.