…a book that all bookclubs should read

I loved the book Beartown so much that I went on to read the following two books in the series. Beartown is a book that can stand on it’s own but if you love the characters you’ll want to read more. The interesting thing about this book is that it is about a junior hockey team in northern Sweden and not something that I would gravitate to. I’m not a huge hockey fan but I do enjoy watching Olympic hockey.

The story involves flawed characters and a community who get caught up in their devotion to a hockey team. Unlike Backman’s more lovable characters in A Man Called Ove and Anxious People the people of Beartown reflect a more realistic community and how making a bad decision has negative consequences that can ruin people’s lives. Backman has the ability to write thoughtfully and make us feel empathy for his characters. The novel is full of suspense, conflict and passion for a game.

If you belong to a bookclub I can see some great discussions come from this novel. The pressure we put on our children to be the best, drinking underage, rape, the roles of women vs men, parenting, the importance of sport in our communities, social and cultural prejudices, and homophobia are just a few areas for discussion.

I loved all the books so much that I decided to draw a map of the two fictional towns, Hed and Beartown and the forest that separates them in northern Sweden. This is how I imagined the map. to look like.