The chapters are days in his life. He's old, lives alone in a basement apartment, his health deteriorates as the book progresses and it's more and more difficult for him to get out.
One story I remember was him meeting his daughter on the street or in a store (they weren't seeing each other on a regular basis) and then she told him she drinks her urine for health reasons and he was surprised that she has a sense of humor but she wasn't joking.
Around the middle of the book he met an old judge who sent him to jail and regretted doing so (I think the old man was a doctor and performed a mercy killing but maybe it was something else), they became kind of friends and used to meet in a park.
I think there was also another unrelated story in that book (or maybe it was related but not in a clear way) about a man being accused of a crime of a sexual nature because of his coat. He wasn't guilty but was impacted heavily buy the investigation.
I think it happened in the 20th century. I might be wrong about the writer being Scandinavian and maybe I misremember some of the details I described.