My brief review of Beartown and Us Against You. While the second installment in the trilogy was a bit too pedantic and agenda-driven for my taste, The Winners is back to the story-telling I enjoyed in Beartown. Masterful and powerful, he’s my favorite contemporary storyteller because he is a keen observer of people, thinks about the kinds of issues that matter most in life, and bravely writes about them. I can say that I awarded it 5+ Stars and that it is profound, compelling, and thought-provoking in Backman’s usual manner.

This is one of those books that’s impossible to review. “A kid needs money or skill to be a somebody in Beartown.” Overall “You want to understand this place? Then you need to understand its connections, the way everything and everyone is tied to everything and everyone else by invisible threads of relationships and loyalties and debts: the ice rink and the factory, the hockey team and the politicians, league position and money, sports and employment opportunities, childhood friends and teammates neighbors and colleagues and families.” My Thoughts: It is the story of family, loyalties, motivations, community, sports….and the big questions in life. The Winners is installment #3 in the Beartown series. *This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

Genre/Categories/Setting: Contemporary Literary Fiction, Hockey, Family Drama, Friendship, Community, Small Town, Sweden The Winners by Fredrik Backman is a compelling work of contemporary literary fiction with complicated characters, page-turning action, and thought-provoking themes.

Fredrik backman winners