The Deal of a Lifetime: A Novella

The Deal of a Lifetime: A Novella

Overview

The Deal of a Lifetime: A Novella by Fredrik Backman, Santino Fontana

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove and Beartown delivers an insightful and poignant tale about finding out what is truly important in life.

It all begins with a father telling a story to his son on Christmas Eve. But this isn’t your typical Christmas story. The father admits to his son that he’s taken a life but he won’t say whose—not yet.

One week earlier, in a hospital late at night, the man met a five-year-old girl with cancer. She’s a smart kid—smart enough to know that she won’t beat cancer by drawing with crayons all day, but it seems to make the adults happy, so she keeps doing it.

As the man tells his son about this plucky little girl, he slowly reveals more about himself: while he may be a successful businessman, idolized by the media and his peers, he knows he failed as a parent. Overwhelmed by the responsibility of fatherhood, he took the easy way out and left his wife and little boy twenty years ago to pursue professional success. Now he is left wondering if it’s too late to forge a relationship with his son, who seems to be his opposite in every way—prizing happiness over money, surrounded by loving friends in a cozy town where he feels right at home.

Face to face with the idea that something is missing, the man is given the unexpected chance to do something selfless that could change the destiny of the little girl in the hospital bed. But before he can make the deal of a lifetime, he needs to find out what his own life has actually been worth in the eyes of his son. And so, he seeks him out and tells him this story...

Written with Fredrik Backman’s signature humor, compassion, and “knack for weaving tales that are believable and fanciful” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch), The Deal of a Lifetime reminds us that life is a fleeting gift, and our only legacy is how we share that gift with those we love.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781508253426
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Publication date: 10/31/2017
Edition description: Unabridged
Pages: 96
Sales rank: 345,126
Product dimensions: 5.00(w) x 5.60(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Fredrik Backman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (soon to be a major motion picture starring Tom Hanks), My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, Britt-Marie Was Here, Beartown, Us Against You, as well as two novellas, And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer and The Deal of a Lifetime. His books are published in more than forty countries. He lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with his wife and two children.

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The Deal of a Lifetime: A Novella 5 out of 5 based on 0 ratings. 1 reviews.
Twink More than 1 year ago
Next up on the holiday reading/listening list is The Deal of a Lifetime by Fredrik Backman. I really enjoy Backman's writing - his 'left of centre' characters and the situations he places them in. In this novella, the lead character is a man who was driven all his life to succeed and excel at business. Where he failed was as a father. He narrates this tale, finally acknowledging his absence and shortcomings to his son. A chance meeting with a dying little girl gives him a chance at redemption. I'm not going to spoil things by telling you how that comes about. It's not quite what you would imagine at all. "Hi. It's your dad. You'll be waking up soon, it's Christmas Eve morning in Helsingborg, and I've killed a person. That's not how fairy tales usually begin, I know. But I took a life. Does it make a difference if you know whose it was?" Backman's writing always moves me. And he's able to do the same thing that he's done in his books as in this 'small' piece of work. I chose to listen to The Deal of a Lifetime. The reader was Santino Fontana. His voice is clear and he enunciates well. His voice suited the mental image I had of this businessman and his regrets. He provides believable voices for the other two characters in the book. He interprets the emotion of the story well. The Deal of a Lifetime was a short, sweet listen, perfect for this ruminative time of the year. The reader can't help but reflect upon their own life - what and who is important in your life? And what would you do to 'fix' things? The title is clever - as you'll find out. Backman's introduction is just as poignant as the tale he tells.