The Deal Of A Lifetime by FREDRIK BACKMAN
The story happens in Helsingborg in the southern of Sweden
All the locations in the story are real
Translate by Alice Menzies
“I am going to die soon, Babbit. Everyone dies, it’s just that most people will die in maybe a hundred thousand years but I might die already tomorrow.” she added, in a whisper,:”I hope it’s not tomorrow.” Page 4
I met death by the side of my wrecked car last night, after the accident. Page 6
But people care about me because of what I leave behind. What I’ve built and achieved, business and properties and assets. money isn’t money to me, not like it is to you. I save and calculate and don’t worry about it. It’s nothing but points for me, just a measure of my success. page 13
I don’t even get cancer like you people. Page 13
a life for a life? Page 16
I didn’t take you to school, didn’t hold your hand, didn’t help you blow out your birthday candle, I never fell asleep in your bed… page 22
“Life isn’t fair “ page 23
you said the world private with such disgust, because we 're so different. You see history, I see development, you see nostalgia, I see weakness...Page 32
Every thing you’ll leave behind will still exist, but it’ll have been built by someone else. your footprints will vanish, you'll never have existed. You humans always think you're ready to give your lives, but only until you understand what that really involves. You're obsessed with your legacy, aren't you? You can't bear to die and be forgotten." Page 54-5
“A second is always a second; that's the one definitive value we have on earth. Everyone is al- ways negotiating, all of the time. You're doing the deal of your life, every day. This was mine.” page 61
"I'm scared," I admitted, but she shook her head.
"You're not scared. You're just grieving. No one tells you humans that your sorrow feels like fear."
"What are we grieving?"
"Time."
page 62
