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 11-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary: “Protein Bars”
Elsa and The Monster take the wurse outside so it can relieve itself. Elsa asks The Monster if he is a soldier, but he says no. She asks him how he got the scar on his face, but he will only answer “Accident” (108). Elsa suggests that they hide the wurse in The Monster’s apartment, but he vehemently refuses. She presses him for more information regarding Granny’s letter, and he tells her that she also wrote “Protect you. Protect Elsa” (110) before he disappears into the woods. Elsa then hides the wurse in Granny’s storage unit in the cellar.
In the morning, both The Monster and the wurse are gone. George drives Elsa to school and tells her that he cannot find his box of protein bars. During recess, Elsa sees the wurse sitting by the schoolyard gate. She gives it the protein bars that she has hidden in her backpack. When the bell rings, Elsa hugs it hard and thanks it for coming. Because the other children in the playground have witnessed the exchange between Elsa and the intimidating-looking wurse, Elsa is not bullied that afternoon.
Chapter 12 Summary: “Mint”
Elsa sees the woman in the black skirt arriving home with bags of liquor, talking loudly on her cell phone about a party she is planning with some coworkers. Standing on Granny’s balcony, Elsa misses her, but it is comforting to know that she is being guarded by the wurse and the Monster, though she’s not quite sure what she’s being guarded from.
As Mum packs up Granny’s things, Elsa reflects on Mum and Granny’s relationship. Though Mum disliked conflict, she fought with Granny often. Elsa recalls Granny’s fairy tale, “The Girl Who Said No,” about a queen who hated conflict so she outlawed the word “no” and eventually declared all talking illegal. One day a girl said “no,” causing the city to crumble, “[a]nd that was how the people of Miaudacas learned that a queen only stays in power for as long as her subjects are afraid of conflict” (117).
Britt-Marie comes to inform Mum that the hound is still on the premises and that Granny’s car, Renault, is parked in Britt-Marie’s space. When Mum tells Britt-Marie she wouldn’t worry about it, Britt-Marie answers, “You’re not the type to worry yourself about other people’s safety, even your own child’s, are you? It’s something you’ve inherited. Putting the career before the children. That is how it’s always been in your family” (120). Elsa suspects Britt-Marie is referring to Granny and wants to know more, but Mum won’t explain.
Frustrated, Elsa goes to Granny’s room and pretends to be asleep. Later she goes to the living room where Mum is asleep on the sofa and kisses her cheek. Elsa gets a flashlight and puts on her shoes because “now she knows where to find the next clue in Granny’s treasure hunt” (122).
Chapter 13 Summary: “Wine”
Elsa remembers that on her sixth birthday, which is also the anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami, she gave Granny a stuffed lion, which she keeps in Renault’s glove compartment. Granny told Elsa that if she ever got lost, “she would send the lion to go and tell Elsa where she was” (126). That is how Elsa knows she will find the next letter in the glove compartment.
Elsa also remembers that on her sixth birthday, Granny told her the story of the sea-angel, who was once a snow angel. When she failed to stand strong with the other snow angels against the terrible waves threatening the Land-of-Almost-Awake, she became the sea-angel, cursed and doomed to drift forever along the edge of the sea. Both her heart and body split “like a shattered mirror” (126), so that her appearance was alternately beautiful and hideous.
After retrieving the letter from Renault, Elsa sits on the steps outside Granny’s apartment. The drunk stumbles down the hall again, and this time her apartment door is open. Elsa peaks inside and sees the walls lined with photographs of two teenage boys and a man who looks to be their father. The drunk shouts at Elsa and reveals herself to be the woman in the black skirt. That night, Mum explains to Elsa that the woman with the black skirt lost her husband and two sons in the tsunami.
Chapter 14 Summary: “Tires”
As Mum drives Elsa to school in the morning, she continues the story of the woman in the black skirt. Granny had found her after the tsunami and taken her home. That was Granny’s last trip, because after that “she got a new job” (133). Elsa is critical of Granny’s absence during Mum’s childhood, but Mum defends Granny, saying she was a superhero who saved children’s lives, and that superheroes have to make sacrifices.
Elsa also learns that Mum’s father died when she was 12, and Britt-Marie took care of her when Granny was away. Mum defends Britt-Marie as well, saying she’s only so difficult because she’s lonely. When Elsa argues that she’s got Kent, Mum answers, “There are many ways of being alone, darling” (137).
As they drive through heavy traffic, a car repeatedly honks its horn behind them. Elsa leaps out of the car with her heaviest book and bangs on the hood of the honking car. As she yells at the driver, a police officer arrives and offers to escort Mum and Elsa to the hospital, assuming she is about to give birth.
At the hospital entrance, Mum and Elsa sit in the car while the police officer goes to find assistance. Elsa asks what Granny’s job was after the tsunami, and Mum says, “Being a grandmother” (143). Elsa says she’s sorry that Granny was not a good mum, but Mum says it’s all right because “she was a fantastic grandmother, Elsa. You were all her second chances” (145). When the policeman returns with nurses, Mum and Elsa decide to do what Granny would have done, and drive away. Elsa notes, “It’s the most irresponsible thing she’s ever seen her mother do. She’ll always love her for it” (147).
Chapter 15: “Wood Shavings”
After leaving the hospital, Mum drives Elsa to school. She tells Elsa that she is going to be a great big sister. Elsa secretly doesn’t want to be a big sister, because she’s afraid Mum and George will love Halfie more than her and that “they’ll abandon her” (151).
Elsa takes a bus back to the apartment and feeds some ice cream to the wurse before going to The Monster and asking to use his computer. As he doesn’t own one, Elsa goes upstairs to see Alf the taxi driver, who shows her on a map where to find the address on Granny’s envelope.
Elsa goes back downstairs to fetch the wurse and The Monster, who agrees to accompany her on the mission. The wurse and The Monster get into an altercation, which Elsa has to break up, telling them tearfully, “You’re supposed to protect me […] I’ve never had any friends and now you two try to kill the only two I’ve ever had, just after I’ve found you!” (157).
The Monster apologizes, and Elsa tells him they are going to deliver every one of Granny’s apology letters. Elsa is determined to complete the mission for Mum’s sake, “hoping that the last sorry will be to her” (158).
Chapters 11-15 Analysis
The Monster is reluctant to discuss his past. When Elsa asks him if he is a soldier, he denies this, although he is wearing soldier’s trousers. When she presses him for details about the scar on his face, he only says, “Accident” (108). It is unclear whether he is being truthful, but his terse answers and changing of the subject suggest he is keeping some information from her.
Elsa discovers that The Monster, like herself, was charged by Granny with the responsibility to “protect the castle” (109). Additionally, Granny has instructed The Monster to protect Elsa. This explains why The Monster came to her rescue in the park. When Elsa returns to school, she experiences for the first time the benefits of having friends who defend you; the fact that the schoolchildren saw The Monster and the wurse, and know that they are Elsa’s defendants, guarantees that Elsa will no longer be bullied at school.
Granny’s story about the queen who hated conflict symbolizes Mum, who believes that “conflict is bad for efficiency and efficiency is very important” (115). In Granny’s view, being able to say “no” and defend one’s opposing position is necessary and even desirable.
When Britt-Marie confronts Mum about the wurse and Granny’s car, Elsa discovers that although Mum remains calm on the outside, she internally struggles to control her temper—“The only thing that gives her away is that she’s slowly, slowly clenching her fists” (120). This confirms that Mum’s emotions are as strong as everyone else’s, though she prefers not to show them.
Elsa recognizes Britt-Marie’s comment, “Putting the career before the children. That is how it’s always been in your family” (120), as a reference to Granny. Though Mum is reluctant to discuss it, Elsa is another step closer to learning more about Granny’s life before Elsa was born. Though she is far from understanding the whole story, Elsa knows enough to feel some sympathy for Mum. As an apology for the way she had treated Mum, Elsa “sneaks up and tucks her and Halfie in. Kisses Mum on the cheek” (122).
Discovering that the woman in the black skirt and the drunk are the same person is a definitive moment in Elsa’s life. For the first time she is exposed to an ugly truth outside of Granny’s fairy tales, and she learns that darkness exists within people in the real world. Elsa recognizes that Granny created the story about the sea-angel to represent the woman, and to help her understand that “not all monsters are monsters in the beginning. Some are monsters born of sorrow” (126).
As Mum continues to tell Elsa more about Granny’s life, Elsa grows increasingly critical of Granny’s choices. Until now, Elsa has considered Granny a superhero for saving so many lives in foreign places. But now she realizes that Granny’s choices came at a cost to Mum, who grew up mostly without a mother to care for her. In addition to her conflicted feelings about Granny, Elsa also feels guilty about her close relationship with Granny, which had excluded Mum through the years. Elsa tells Mum she is angry with Granny for “not telling the truth,” but finally Elsa admits that she is really angry at Granny “for dying and disappearing from me” (146).
Learning about Mum’s life as she was growing up gives Elsa a new motivation for completing Granny’s mission. Until now, she was acting purely out of a sense of duty to Granny. But now that she has more empathy for Mum, Elsa is determined to deliver all the letters for her sake. Elsa’s hope is that the last letter will be Granny’s apology to Mum for abandoning her during her childhood.
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By Fredrik Backman
