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Beartown
Fredrik Backman
482 pages
Penguin books
Goodreads | Bookshop.org | Amazon
I’ve been wanting to read this for several years now – it was published in 2018 – but never quite got round to sourcing a copy until now. Luckily for me, it’s since become a trilogy, so I won’t need to wait too long to return to the forbidding Swedish forest and unforgettable shades-of-grey characters (no, not the EL James ones!) I’d only read one Backman book before – clearly I need to remedy this. Like many readers, I worried that I might not be able to follow or enjoy a book about ice hockey (they just call it hockey – I wonder if they even play the grass kind in Sweden?) but he is such a good storyteller, I should’ve had faith.
This is about a small town whose hopes and dreams rest on their young junior ice hockey team making it to the National final against the odds. When the adulation showered on their star player turns him from god to monster, most of the obsessed locals all want to turn a blind eye to the truth. Can they survive when winning is all that matters?
This had awesome characters – here’s grumpy alcoholic barkeep Ramona:
‘Keep your trap shut when I’m talking! F***ing men! YOU’RE the problem! Religion doesn’t fight, guns don’t kill, and you need to be very f***ing clear that hockey has never raped anyone! But do you know who do? Fight and kill and rape?’
Sune clears his throat. ‘Men?’
‘MEN! It’s always f***ing men!’
There are boys you start out loathing and end up cheering for, adults you want to punch in the face (metaphorically – I would never condone violence) and some incredibly brave and selfless teenagers. I didn’t even mind the present tense narration which is so skilfully done I hardly noticed it. Yes there is a lot about hockey but you don’t need to know anything about the game to enjoy this. It’s a lot darker than “A Man Called Ove” with the prologue instilling a sense of dread that pervades the whole book. There’s violence, cruelty, sadness and loss. Still, I loved the hopeful way it turned out, and am looking forward to reading Us Against You just as soon as I can get my hands on a copy.
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