Though there are many "white shirts" in the novel, this particular white-shirt-wearer is the Škoda-driving man who wants to place Rune in assisted living. He refuses to follow the rules of Ove's neighborhood and drives his car through the residential area, leaving cigarette butts when he does. He has a great deal of power and he knows it, and he tries to use it for his own gain, but he backs down when the neighborhood bands together with Lena to uncover evidence that he had been breaking rules that could lead to a public investigation if exposed.
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The Man in the White Shirt Character Timeline in A Man Called Ove
The timeline below shows where the character The Man in the White Shirt appears in A Man Called Ove. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
11. A Man Called Ove and a Lanky One Who Can't Open a Window Without Falling Off a Ladder
...to read the sign indicating that motor vehicles are prohibited and approaches the car. The man in the white shirt in the car has his window down to smoke, but rolls it up as Ove...
(full context)
15. A Man Called Ove and a Delayed Train
...Ove walks by the bicycle shed, he sees the white Škoda. In addition to the man in the white shirt , there's a woman in a white shirt in the car. The man nearly runs...
(full context)
19. A Man Called Ove and a Cat That Was Broken When He Came
...into them. On his morning inspection, Ove picks up a cigarette butt left by the man in the white shirt .
(full context)
20. A Man Called Ove and an Intruder
...Ove bangs on the window and startles the woman in the passenger seat, but the man in the white shirt rolls down his window and seems unconcerned. The man tells Ove that he has permission...
(full context)
Ove tells the man in the white shirt again that he can't drive in the residential area. The man asks Ove what he's...
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31. A Man Called Ove Backs Up a Trailer. Again.
...that made him extremely angry, and now he is standing in the road with the man in the white shirt , telling the man that there was nothing good on TV. Unlike all the other...
(full context)
...sent. He hadn't read either but as he goes to find them, he notices the man in the white shirt driving his Škoda through the residential area. Ove drops the phone and runs out to...
(full context)
The man in the white shirt gets out of his car by Rune and Anita's house as Ove yells at him....
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When the man in the white shirt comes out of Rune's house, he finds his car blocked by a trailer. Ove stands...
(full context)
34. A Man Called Ove and a Boy in the House Next Door
...situation. Earlier that morning, Ove called Social Services from Parvaneh's house and spoke with the man in the white shirt about Rune. The conversation went poorly from the start: Ove insulted the man's ability to...
(full context)
...company and also that he broke up with Blond Weed. Later that afternoon, when the man in the white shirt returned with police to get his Škoda unblocked, the trailer and the Škoda were both...
(full context)
35. A Man Called Ove and Social Incompetence
Half an hour later, the man in the white shirt knocks on Rune and Anita's door. Anita opens it and he tells her it's time...
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Lena explains that the papers are records of the man in the white shirt 's patients over the last few years who have been improperly placed in assisted living....
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