Beartown

I wasn't sure I would love a novel centred on hockey - but as with Friday Night Lights this is actually a story about people - about strength and tribal loyalty and what we unwittingly do when trying to show our boys how to be men. I utterly believed in the residents of Beartown , and felt ripped apart by the events in the book

I wasn't sure I would love a novel centred on hockey - but as with Friday Night Lights this is actually a story about people - about strength and tribal loyalty and what we unwittingly do when trying to show our boys how to be men. I utterly believed in the residents of Beartown , and felt ripped apart by the events in the book

Surrounded by impenetrable forests, it recreates the stifling atmosphere of a dying community. This is a mature, compassionate novel.

A story about families, about friendship and loyalty, inequality, female vulnerability, male back-slapping, and parenthood ... No person's story is too little to be told, Backman includes them all. A novel with a big heart

A kind of problem play that moves extremely skilfully near the melodramatic without derailing. Its originality is substantial and the book credibly conveys the dual faces of everyday life. An impressive novel, like no other

Friday Night Lights for Swedes

As popular Swedish exports go, Backman is up there with ABBA and Stieg Larsson.

Backman is a masterful writer, his characters familiar yet distinct, flawed yet heroic. . . There are scenes that bring tears, scenes of gut-wrenching despair, and moments of sly humor. . .Like Friday Night Lights , this is about more than youth sports; it's part coming-of-age novel, part study of moral failure, and finally a chronicle of groupthink in which an unlikely hero steps forward to save more than one person from self-destruction. A thoroughly empathetic examination of the fragile human spirit, Backman's latest will resonate a long time.

Praise for A Man Called Ove

It's warm, funny, and ultimately almost unbearably moving

Delightful ... the perfect holiday read

Number 1 New York Times bestseller FREDRIK BACKMAN made his literary debut in 2012 with the global sensation A Man Called Ove - now a major motion picture starring Tom Hanks. Wickedly funny, touching and wise, Fredrik Backman's novels are odysseys of the ordinary man and woman, and stunningly moving tales of everyday courage. Up to now, Fredrik Backman has written seven highly acclaimed novels, two heartfelt novellas about life and love, and one non-fiction book about parenthood. His books have sold more than 18 million copies in 46 languages and the Swedish film adaption of A Man Called Ove was nominated for two Academy Awards. He lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with his wife and two children.