The Winners: A Novel (Beartown Series)
Return to the close-knit, resilient community of Beartown with this “engrossing page-turner” (Woman’s World) about first loves, second chances, and last goodbyes—from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anxious People and A Man Called Ove.
Over the course of two weeks, everything in Beartown will change.
Two years have passed since the events that no one wants to think about. Everyone has tried to move on, but there’s something about this place that prevents it. The destruction caused by a ferocious late-summer storm reignites the old rivalry between Beartown and the neighboring town of Hed, a rivalry which has always been fought through their ice hockey teams.
Maya Andersson and Benji Ovich, two young people who left in search of a better life, come home and joyfully reunite with their closest childhood friends. There is a new sense of optimism and purpose in the town, embodied in the impressive new ice rink that has been built down by the lake.
Maya’s parents, meanwhile, are caught up in an investigation of the hockey club’s murky finances, and Amat—once the star of the Beartown team—has lost his way after an injury and a failed attempt to get drafted into the NHL. Simmering tensions between the two towns turn into acts of intimidation and then violence. All the while, a fourteen-year-old boy grows increasingly alienated from this hockey-obsessed community and is determined to take revenge on the people he holds responsible for his beloved sister’s death. He has a pistol and a plan that will leave Beartown with a loss that is almost more that it can stand.
Discover what it means to forgive with this “hell of a conclusion to an outstanding series” (Booklist, starred review).
Over the course of two weeks, everything in Beartown will change.
Two years have passed since the events that no one wants to think about. Everyone has tried to move on, but there’s something about this place that prevents it. The destruction caused by a ferocious late-summer storm reignites the old rivalry between Beartown and the neighboring town of Hed, a rivalry which has always been fought through their ice hockey teams.
Maya Andersson and Benji Ovich, two young people who left in search of a better life, come home and joyfully reunite with their closest childhood friends. There is a new sense of optimism and purpose in the town, embodied in the impressive new ice rink that has been built down by the lake.
Maya’s parents, meanwhile, are caught up in an investigation of the hockey club’s murky finances, and Amat—once the star of the Beartown team—has lost his way after an injury and a failed attempt to get drafted into the NHL. Simmering tensions between the two towns turn into acts of intimidation and then violence. All the while, a fourteen-year-old boy grows increasingly alienated from this hockey-obsessed community and is determined to take revenge on the people he holds responsible for his beloved sister’s death. He has a pistol and a plan that will leave Beartown with a loss that is almost more that it can stand.
Discover what it means to forgive with this “hell of a conclusion to an outstanding series” (Booklist, starred review).
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Community Reviews
I really liked this series overall. There are so many characters but he does an excellent job of weaving their stories together while developing characters. A constant critique I have with Backman is his descriptions of size and fattness that coincide with characters who are dumb, morally flawed, or at low points in life. The only thing keeping this from a true 5 star rating for me was the length. At 688 pages and 108 chapters the conclusion felt delayed and tedious for the second half. This easily could have been 75 chapters with nothing lost with more editing.
If you read the first two, you donât want to miss this third installment! Fredrik Backman is simply put a wordsmith. His writing is beautiful, poignant and often funny. I saw him interviewed when The Winners was released. I appreciated how he acknowledged the importance of his translator, Neil Smith. I honestly never thought about it before.
First book of 2023. Fredrik Backman's observation towards human nature & character is remarkable. The values he write about in this book are universal. Beartown and Hed may be small towns south of North Pole, but you'll have no problem being reminded that those people with their best & worst traits they can be capable of can exist in other communities halfway across the world. The ones with greed, loneliness, and hatred.. but also the ones who love with no end, offer a helping hand, and run into the fire.
Although I think it could've been shorter, it's still a powerful conclusion to the trilogy. Almost like the author wants to bid goodbye to Beartown as little as we do. So long, Beartown!
Although I think it could've been shorter, it's still a powerful conclusion to the trilogy. Almost like the author wants to bid goodbye to Beartown as little as we do. So long, Beartown!
6/5
this hurts too much to touch with words
benji is easily my second favorite fictional character every written. and one mr fredrik backman may very well be my new favorite author. his character development and imagery is absolutely INSANE. never has a fictional place felt so real to me
these books tore me apart and put me back together one too many times.
insert some of the most heartbreaking lines ever written in the world of fiction:
“Stories about boys like him only end with us no longer dreaming of time machines, because if one was ever invented in the distant future, it would already have been used to travel back here by someone who loved him.”
“She lets someone play with the number 16 again. For one single game.”
“Around here we usually say that we bury our children under our most beautiful trees, but not even the best among us can find a tree beautiful enough to watch over Benjamin Ovich. So we grow new ones, all around the stone bearing his name, we let Alicia and other children plant them in the soil so that they grow up around him. Until he is no longer sleeping in a churchyard, but where he was always safest and happiest. In a forest.”
………….
gonna go stare at the wall for a bit
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