The Winners

The Winners is the third novel in the Beartown series by Swedish blogger, columnist and author, Fredrik Backman. It is translated from Swedish by Neil Smith. It begins with a wild storm that lashes the rival towns of Beartown and Hed: Ana steps in for her drunken father to escort Hed midwife, Hannah to a woman in labour stranded in the forest by a fallen tree; a baby boy is born.

Peter Andersson, mulling over the emptiness of his life without hockey, waits in vain for his wife Kira to come home from work; angry and disaffected, fourteen-year-old Matteo roams the street; Fatima is urged by the caretaker to abandon her cleaning and go home; and Tails only concern is to save the twelve enormous green Bears flags with which he has adorned the ice rink. And someone dies.

In Hed, the ice rink collapses; fireman Johnny looks after his children while his wife attends an emergency birth; Kira avoids going home, spending the night in her dark office; elsewhere, Maya believes she has come to terms with what many in Beartown term "the scandal", until she almost stabs an innocent in a poorly lit park; for two years, Benji has been living a non-hockey, nomadic life, drunk and free and far from Beartown; and a call from family summons each of them home.

In the aftermath: Amat finally breaks his self-imposed exile and starts running again; Matteo's parents bring home the remains of his sister; two funerals are arranged and one is well-attended; decisions are made by "interested parties" about road-clearing priorities that clearly involve political machinations; a two-year-long truce ends; and a girl from Hed falls in love with a hockey coach from Beartown.

As well, a journalist turns up looking for evidence of corruption, and with the Beartown Hockey Club in his sights, manipulating an unsuspecting source with benign queries; a lawyer is surprised to be offered the newly-vacated place on the Beartown Hockey Club management committee; a factory accident has tragic consequences.

The Beartown coach and the former manager check out a potential new player; a guitar-playing teen falls for a hockey player; and a beloved dog is killed. Despite lots of underhandedness, heightened rivalry and manipulation, there is also new love and friendship and mentoring, sibling affection and kindness.

But from the very start, Backman continually reminds the reader that things will not end well for a certain character. And with every small thing that happens, the need for vengeance in that angry young teen grows, until he's finally angry enough to steal a gun. And use it.

The story of the storm, the aftermath and the events of the two years preceding are told in straight narrative and flashbacks, from numerous perspectives, including that of a Hed family. He offers a detailed description of "the way everything and everyone is tied to everything and everyone else by invisible hooks and threads of relationships and loyalties and debts." Sometimes Backman just uses a tiny vignette to great emotional effect: tissues will be needed.

The best of the gems of wisdom and insight with which Backman endows his characters could easily fill a close-typed page, so only a few are shared here: "fear turns some people into heroes but most of us only reveal our worst sides when we're caught in its shadow" and "children open floodgates inside us, upward as well as down. You've never felt so happy, and never felt so scared" and "If no one knows who you are, you can be whoever you want." Another moving, thought-provoking and uplifting read from Fredrik Backman.

This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Simon & Schuster UK.