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Overview
Overview
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY: LibraryReads - BookBrowse - Goodreads "You'll love this engrossing novel." --People The bestselling author of A Man Called Ove returns with a dazzling, profound novel about a small town with a big dream--and the price required to make it come true. People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever-encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semi-finals, and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys. Being responsible for the hopes of an entire town is a heavy burden, and the semi-final match is the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected. Beartown explores the hopes that bring a small community together, the secrets that tear it apart, and the courage it takes for an individual to go against the grain. In this story of a small forest town, Fredrik Backman has found the entire world.
- Format: TradePaperback
- Author: Backman, Fredrik
- ISBN: 9781501160776
- Condition: Used
- Dimensions: 8.20 x 1.20
- Number Of Pages: 432
- Publication Year: 2018
Customer Reviews
Rating Snapshot
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8 Ratings
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A hockey team in a small town is so much more.
Grace M. - 1 year 4 months agoThis book introduces you to characters you will never forget. Fredrik Backman is a master of making you cry, laugh, and cry again - on the same page. Even if you don't like hockey at all, and can't stand sports, this book will make you care. It can be terribly hard and heavy to read sometimes, but that's why it's great. Don't forget to have the sequel, Us Against You, ready when you finish this book. You won't want to wait a second to dive back into this world.
HPB Staff Review -
title is great
Tina D. - 5 years 4 months agoawesome story, great character building experience , learning to love and trust others, learning they are not alone
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"You might be playing with bears, but that doesn’t mean that you have to forget that you’re a lion.”
Jennifer E. - 6 years agoIn second grade we introduce social studies with a unit called “What is a community?” As it turns out, this is a universal question with which we continue to grapple throughout our lives. In Beartown, a fictional social studies textbook equivalent for adults, Fredrik Backman defines community as “the sum total of our choices” for “what the hell is life...apart from moments?--The best psychologist in town.” The Beartown banner waves green, white, and brown--forest, ice, and earth--“Community. Values. Character.” “Community is the fact that we work toward the same goal, that we accept our respective roles in order to reach it. Values is the fact that we trust each other. That we love each other. Culture is as much about what we encourage as what we actually permit. That most people don’t do what we tell them to. They do what we let them get away with.” Like a religious organization, “A hockey club is what makes everyone in this town remember, once a week, all the things they have in common instead of what divides them...Some people say hockey is like religion, but that’s wrong. Hockey is like faith. Religion is something between you and other people; it’s full of interpretations and theories and opinions. But faith...that’s just between you and God. It’s what you feel in your chest when the referee glides out to the center circle between two players, when you hear the sticks strike each other and see the black disc fall between them.” But what happens to those for whom the black discs are the club of white men that “allocates power and draws boundaries and turns some people into stars and others into spectators.” Theirs is “a town whose inhabitants want to believe and a world that has spent years telling them to give up. There isn’t a single atheist in the whole building.” It’s a place where women, refugees, low income, and LGBTQ bow their heads and devote themselves to Beartown’s “real traditional sports: shame and silence...You might be playing with bears, but that doesn’t mean that you have to forget that you’re a lion.”
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Fredrik Backman has done it again!
Lizzie M. - 6 years 3 months agoI have a certain fascination with Backman's work. He develops beautiful characters and seldom has to explain their feelings. The simplicity of his writing is filled with little nuances that add so much depth to the story through connections between characters. I felt the "human" in every character in Beartown, rooting for the manager, the janitor, the players, the wives. The unity within this town feels surreal coming from living just north of Dallas, yet I can still picture being there and being on the rink. It's astounding. Amazing story. If you liked Ove or Britt-Marie, you'll love Beartown. #SummerReading
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The Black, The White, and The Grey
Shane H. - 6 years 4 months agoBeartown cemented Fredrick Backman as a must-read author for me, though admittedly I was mostly there already. Despite centering around a locale that is unfamiliar to me, a sport I've never had any interest in, and a subject that is hard to stomach; for better or for worse, Backman makes you feel like this is your town too.