62 pages • 2 hours read
Fredrik BackmanMy Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 6-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary: “Cleaning Agents”
On Monday, Elsa decides to deliver the letter to The Monster during her lunch hour at school. As she is leaving school, she is chased by a group of boys who grab her backpack with Granny’s letter inside. She must fight in order to protect it, and winds up with three deep scratches across her cheek.
Elsa rings The Monster’s doorbell but no one answers. She is angry that Granny apparently shared their private stories of Miamas with The Monster. Elsa again gives chocolates to Our Friend, through its mail slot, telling it, “If you see The Monster, tell him I have mail for him” (58). Looking out the bus window on the way back to school, Elsa sees the slim, cigarette-smoking man again.
Back at school, Elsa is summoned to the headmaster’s office, and Mum is called in as well. The headmaster implores Mum to keep calm, saying, “Think of the baby” (66). He suggests psychological counseling for Elsa. Elsa is obstinate, speaking rudely to both the headmaster and Mum. On the drive home Mum uncharacteristically loses her temper with Elsa, telling her that she is not the only one who misses Granny. Mum apologizes for her outburst, but Elsa merely answers, “It’s no good shouting like that […] think about the baby” (67).
Chapter 7: “Leather”
On Tuesday, Dad picks up Elsa from school and drives her back to the apartment building. In the vestibule, there is a locked baby stroller under a notice which says, “Do not leave strollers here; they are a fire risk” (71). Britt-Marie, who has deemed herself in charge of the bulletin board, is very upset and wants to know who left the stroller and the note.
The hound begins barking, and Elsa tries to distract Britt-Marie, who has threatened to have it put down. Elsa goes upstairs to Granny’s apartment, where Maud and Lennart, fellow tenants Elsa calls the two nicest people in the world, are cleaning and packing her things. Elsa climbs into Granny’s wardrobe and is later followed by the boy with the syndrome. Maud brings them a plate of cookies.
Later Elsa hears the building drunk stumbling in the hallway and singing her usual song. Through the window, she sees The Monster walking away from the building. She runs outside, calling to him, but he doesn’t stop. Elsa flings herself around his leg, holds up the envelope, and says, “My granny says to tell you she’s sorry!” (78). The Monster snarls at her to go away before disappearing into the darkness. His words sound strange for a reason Elsa can’t quite pinpoint. She crumples up Granny’s letter and throws it after him. Mum comes outside, and Elsa runs into her arms. Elsa cries, saying she misses Granny, and Mum says she misses her too. Elsa doesn’t see The Monster pick up the envelope, but she realizes why his words sounded strange: He was speaking in Granny and Elsa’s secret language.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Rubber”
On Wednesday after school, Elsa is chased by a group of girls. Elsa remembers Granny’s advice that “[s]ometimes the safest place is when you flee to what seems the most dangerous” (84), so she heads in the direction of a park known to be inhabited by drug addicts. Just as she reaches the park, she is caught by the girls, but before they can beat Elsa, they are chased off by The Monster, who shouts, “Never! Touch! Her!” (85). This time he is speaking in Elsa’s language, but his words sound “as if he hasn’t spoken such words for a very long time” (85). Elsa watches the girls scatter, and when she turns around again, The Monster is gone.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Soap”
Dad picks up Elsa from school and brings her home. This time there are police officers in the building. Britt-Marie has called them to come and take Our Friend away.
As Our Friend barks ferociously, Elsa recalls Granny’s stories about the “wurses,” the most terrifying creatures in Miploris. They served as palace guards, until one day the Princess provoked a wurse puppy by pulling its tail while he was sleeping. All the wurses were banished from the kingdom, until the Princess brought them back as warriors to drive the shadows away during the War Without End.
Meanwhile, the police leave the building while they wait for Animal Control to arrive. Elsa sneaks to Our Friend’s door and whispers through the mail slot that he is in danger and should find a way to escape. The Monster comes out of his apartment, unlocks Our Friend’s door, and ushers both Our Friend and Elsa into his apartment.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Alcohol”
Animal Control arrives and attempts to remove the door from the apartment of Our Friend, who Elsa now realizes is the wurse from Granny’s stories. The Monster washes his hands over and over. He gives Elsa plastic shoe covers to wear and appears upset about the dirt tracked in by Elsa and the wurse. She suspects he has a compulsive disorder.
Elsa asks The Monster about the contents of Granny’s letter and about the wurse. The Monster tells her that the envelope contained the key to the wurse’s apartment, and that Granny’s letter said he must “protect the castle” (103). When Elsa asks if Granny had taught him the secret language, The Monster replies, “Not she who taught me. I taught her” (104). At that moment Elsa realizes that The Monster is both the Werewolf Boy from Granny’s ceiling photographs and Wolfheart from her fairy tales.
Chapters 6-10 Analysis
The scene in the headmaster’s office offers a great deal of insight into Elsa’s relationship with Mum, as well as the adults at her school. Elsa is in trouble for fighting with the boy in her class who told her girls can’t be Spiderman. Elsa is clearly frustrated that no one seems to understand that she is being bullied for being different. It is apparent that Elsa has dealt with circumstances such as this many times before, and her frustration with always being misunderstood causes her to shut down, refusing to communicate her side of the story with Mum and the headmaster. Meanwhile, Mum, who is used to being in charge, must work hard to control her own emotions when the headmaster advises her to stay calm for the baby’s sake.
Elsa recognizes that the headmaster’s tone is patronizing, but she has little sympathy for Mum. Mum’s attempts to apologize for Elsa’s behavior make her angry, because Elsa knows that if Granny were still alive, she would have defended Elsa. On the drive home, Elsa continues to punish Mum for not behaving as Granny would have. Both Elsa and Mum are coping with their feelings of loss following Granny’s death, and each is angry that the extent of her personal loss is not being acknowledged. In Elsa’s opinion, she scores a victory when she forces the usually composed Mum into an uncharacteristically emotional outburst. Not satisfied with Mum’s subsequent apology, Elsa further punishes Mum by condescending to her in the exact manner of the headmaster.
Dad is the last major character to appear in the novel, and this is indicative of his role in Elsa’s life up until now. As tentative as Mum is decisive, Dad never knows what to say to Elsa or what activities she might enjoy, thus they do not have a particularly close relationship.
The stroller’s sudden appearance in the apartment building’s lobby is a mystery. However, it can be inferred that whoever put it there has a perverse sense of humor, since this person also put a note on the bulletin board that reads, “Do not leave strollers here! They are a fire risk” (71). Since Britt-Marie has appointed herself in charge of notices on the bulletin board, the person who left the note and the stroller is likely someone who enjoys antagonizing Britt-Marie.
It appears that there is yet another tenant in the apartment building when Elsa describes hearing the “drunk” stumble out of her apartment and down the stairwell, singing. It is not clear why the drunk was not described earlier with the other tenants or what her relationship is to the others, but no one in the building seems particularly concerned about her. Their attitude is that “drunks are like monsters, and if they pretend they are not there, they actually disappear” (76).
When Elsa first encounters The Monster, he does in fact appear monstrous to her: His face is “buried under a beard as thick as an animal pelt and emerging from the shadows of his hood, a scar zigzags down over one eye” (78). However, after The Monster hides Elsa and Our Friend in his apartment in anticipation of Animal Control’s arrival, and she watches him frantically washing his hands, Elsa’s perception of him changes. He no longer gives the impression of a menacing, monstrous being, but rather a confused, awkward man-child with an obsessive-compulsive disorder. Similarly, Elsa forms a new impression of the wurse. She no longer regards it as a terrifying, bloodthirsty beast, but rather a loyal animal mourning the loss of Granny, and “this is when she starts really, really liking it a lot” (103).
Elsa is able to clearly see that The Monster and Our Friend inspired Granny’s imaginary characters of Wolfheart and the wurses, and from now on, this is how she will view them. Recognizing that Granny’s stories parallel real life is a key that will help Elsa unlock subsequent mysteries along her treasure hunt.
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By Fredrik Backman
