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 -- Jojo Moyes * bestselling author of Me Before You *
Surrounded by impenetrable forests, it recreates the stifling atmosphere of a dying community. This is a mature, compassionate novel. * Sunday Times *
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 * Jönköpings-Posten, Sweden *
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 * BTJ, Sweden *
Friday Night Lights for Swedes -- O Magazine
As popular Swedish exports go, Backman is up there with ABBA and Stieg Larsson. * The New York Times Book Review *
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. * Kirkus Reviews *
Praise for A Man Called Ove * - *
It's warm, funny, and ultimately almost unbearably moving * Daily Mail *
Delightful ... the perfect holiday read * Evening Standard *
A warm and tender story about love, loss and second chances, peppered with memorable characters, wonderful set pieces and some beautifully black humour. Ove is a joy from start to finish * Gavin Extence, author of The Universe versus Alex Woods *
An uplifting, life-affirming and often comic tale of how kindness, love and happiness can be found in the most unlikely places * Sunday Express *
Backman can tickle the funny bone and tug on the heart strings when he needs to, and is a clever enough storyteller to not overindulge in either * Independent *