Chapter 31 opens with Ove planning to try yet another suicide tactic, as he intends to use Sonja’s father’s old rifle: “He’s decided that his dislike of weapons could never be greater than his dislike of all the empty places she has left behind in their silent little house” (231). As usual, something stands in the way of his plans.

Parvaneh comes knocking on Ove’s door “as if it was the last functioning toilet in the civilized world” (232). She has the journalist, Lena, on the phone, the same one who wanted to interview Ove for being a “hero” after he saved a man’s life. Lena previously sent him a letter and a copy of the newspaper she writes for, hoping to convince him to take part in an interview. She now resorts to calling Parvaneh, who tracks down Ove.

As they are on the phone, however, Ove sees the white Škoda driving by. Ove runs out in the street and gets into an altercation with the bureaucrat. The councilman tells him, “I know who you are, Ove. I know everything about all the letters you’ve written about your wife’s accident and your wife’s illness.