Beartown

By: Fredrik Backman

Narrated by: John Sackville

Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Beartown by Fredik Backman, read by John Sackville.

Beartown is a small town in a large Swedish forest.

For most of the year it is under a thick blanket of snow, experiencing the kind of cold and dark that brings people closer together - or pulls them apart.

Its isolation means that Beartown has been slowly shrinking with each passing year. But now the town is on the verge of an astonishing revival. A bright new future is just around the corner.

Until the day it is all put in jeopardy by a single, brutal act.

It divides the town into those who think it should be hushed up and forgotten, and those who'll risk the future to see justice done. At last, it falls to one young man to find the courage to speak the truth that it seems no one else wants to hear.

With the town's future at stake, no one can stand by or stay silent. Everyone is on one side or the other.

Which side would you be on?

Previously published as The Scandal.

©2017 Fredrik Backman (P)2017 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"As popular Swedish exports go, Backman is up there with ABBA and Stieg Larsson." (The New York Times Book Review)

Deeply human characters

Fredrik Backman creates true and complex characters with meaningful relationships. I have bookmarked so many phrases that touched me and where situations were so clearly and eloquently described. A beautifully written book packed full of drama, tension, humanity and emotions. The narrator captured the emotions so well and created true personalities with unforced accents. A job well done. Here and there the sound varied as if he stood closer to the microphone or moved away - which was probably a recording glitch, but not the fault of the narrator.

Fiction or non-fiction?

Growing up in rural Sweden this really swept me back in both the best ways and the worst. Excellently written with great insight of the real areas described.

Gripping and sad. Worth a listen

Not an easy listen. This is a story that deals with real issues - culture, parenting, substance abuse, abuse, rape, and what we choose to see, understand and/or accept. Ultimately a gripping story.

Gripping, full of drama, emotion and compassion

Fredrik Backman is an exceptional writer that always manages to heve me as a reader a real relationship with the complex and developing characters. For someone who never cared for hockey at all and grew up on the wrong side of small town group dynamics, it was a tough pill to swallow when I came to love characters that live and breathe such stuff in all its horror.

The glimpses into different characters experiencing the same or subsequent time periods became so short towards the end that it was hard to keep track and make my brain jump to the appropriate setting. This is probably much less of a challenge in print than in audiobook format , and might be correlated to my lack of sleep by the time I wrapped up the book, so I just resign myself to having to return to understand exactly what happened to especially Benji.

Except for "bang, bang, bang, bang", it was great

A friend recommended the book, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was uncanny to see the similarities between this book and the 1999 movie Mystery, Alaska. Both are set against a backdrop of a small rural town where ice hockey rules supreme.

The characters were very well-developed, and the book probably deserves 4.5 stars. A passage in the middle of the book was a bit slow, so I cannot rate it 5 stars. The book's ending, while executed satisfactorily, could have provided a bit more thrill. Another reason for rounding down instead of up was the repeated use of the word "bang". I realise the author wanted to emphasise the commitment of players practising, but it was repeated so often that I started comparing it to Neymar's rolling antics - it just kept going on and on. I did a quick word count, and the word was used 119 times, often in sequences of "Bang-bang-bang. Bang. Bang". This was repeated incessantly and, frankly, became extremely annoying. I also listened to the audiobook (Audible), which made it hard to gloss over. These were big enough issues for me to downgrade my rating.

Other than that, the author does a very good job of highlighting bias regarding matters close to people's hearts. It is probably nowhere near as evident regarding their favourite sports. The lengths individuals will go to to protect their stars are often as disturbing as the despicable acts these stars are accused of.

There are two more books in the series, and I will probably read them later.

A deeply truthful fiction

This book was such a hard read in places as it shone a cold brutal light on real issues. The truth of it is painful. I’m glad I read through as you feel the healing the Maya feels. Deeply thought provoking. You may question why you picked up this book, you may wish you didn’t, but you won’t regret finishing it.

Gripping story

A slightly slow start but a very well told and gripping story. The narrator taking on different English accents for a story not from there was a bit irritating but otherwise well told.

Not for everyone

Harsh, difficult, insightful,well written. Not a happy,cozy read at all. A rape is the centre. Not what U expected at all. Clipped voice of reader drove me nuts! Had to speed up so it would sound normally instead of irritating staccato.

Brilliant

This is a great story about humanity and how hard it is to survive, but survive we do. A story about a hockey town ( although it could have been any other male dominated sport). A story about parenting, friendships, prejudices, deceit, love, humour, cruelty - it’s has it all, yet told in such a simple fashion that it is truly wonderful.

Backman delivers another beautiful story

Riveting story, detailed and credible characterisation., and searing emotion.
John Sackville reads it with the exact pitch of a sympathetic observer, drawing you in to Beartown in all its strength and frailty.
I loved this book.