Fredrik Backman, author of A Man Called Ove, has announced on his Facebook page that he will be giving away 600 children’s books during this week’s 33rd Gothenburg Book Fair.

He writes: “My family and I have bought 600 copies of The Brothers Lion Heart, which will be given free of charge to any children who want them on Thursday, Friday , Saturday and Sunday this week at three Akademibokhandeln stores in Gothenburg.”

“It won’t change the world, I know, but when I was a child, Astrid Lindgren changed everything for me. I don’t know who I would have been without her but I do know I wouldn’t have been a writer.

This initiative follows Backman’s offer to pay for all children’s books sold one day at a bookstore in Stockholm this spring, following the attack on Drottninggatan.

He explained: “When I was little and something terrible happened, my mother always read books for me. That’s how she explained all the hardest things in life – she let me ask questions and we started all our conversations like that. With books.”

“When my grandfather died when I was six, mom read The Brothers Lion Heart to me, and it gave me a way to talk to my grandmother about death. Now mom is reading The Brothers Lion Heart to my own children, and I’m reading Harry Potter with them and it helps us talk about other things. It doesn’t change the world, I know, but it’s something.”