The Scandal
By Fredrick Backman
The Scandal
Blurb
Beartown is a hockey town in the nestled in the forests of Sweden.
The inhabitants of Beartown are preparing for the game of the season, The Beartown Ice Hockey Club’s junior team is in the semi-final of the biggest youth tournament in the country. To the people of Beartown the love of hockey is as natural as breathing.
When news of a violent and sickening act breaks shortly before the final of the hockey match the citizen of Beartown will be divided. Whose word do they believe and what will it mean for the hopes of the town and several of the key friendships within it when people fall on different sides of the debate.
Our Review
WARNING this review contains some spoilers.

I nearly didn’t request The Scandal by Fredrik Backman because I am the opposite of a sports fan and as much as anything else this a book about the love of Hockey. Having read it, I am so pleased I decided to ignore my doubts.
Beartown is a small place nestled away in the forests of Sweden, a place where a wrong decision can lead to a grown man freezing to death in the night.
The Scandal is primarily a story about a small town and the people in it, a sense of community. If it had been a hockey story pure and simple then I know I would not have enjoyed it but as it was I wanted to read and reread it.
From the opening lines of the book I was drawn in to the story without even realising it, the opening lines were gripping.
“Late one evening toward the end of March, a teenager picked up a double-barrelled shotgun, walked into the forest, put the gun to someone else’s forehead, and pulled the trigger.
This is the story of how we got there.”
The inhabitants of Beartown are preparing for the game of the season, The Beartown Ice Hockey Club’s junior team is in the semi-final of the biggest youth tournament in the country. To the people of Beartown the love of hockey is as natural as breathing.
Maya’s father, Peter, is the general manager of the hockey club but Maya is not overly interested in hockey. She prefers to play her guitar or to hang around with her best friend Ana. She and Ana met when Ana saved her from drowning when they were both children. After previously losing a son, Maya’s parents have always been incredibly protective of her so Ana provided a welcome antidote to that. Now Anna has smoothed her ages in order to fit in and Maya mourns the loss of her wilderness friend but they remain close nevertheless.
Beartown is the definition of a town on the edge of a wilderness. The Scandal has some very vivid and raw descriptions of it.
“Beartown isn’t close to anything. Even on a map the place looks unnatural. ‘As if a drunk giant tried to piss his name in the snow,’ some might say. ‘As if nature and man were fighting a tug-of-war for space,’ more high-minded souls might suggest. Either way, the town is losing.”
The town is struggling to stop it’s small businesses from closing and to stop the young people moving away as soon as they are able. Winning the hockey match would likely bring investors and money into the town and because of this the people of Beartown have a lot riding on the outcome. The welcoming sign as you enter once said ‘Beartown leaves you wanting more’ but the more has faded over time.
Amat is a young player dreaming of being a star of the hockey team. His mother is a cleaner at the rink and every morning he has a deal with the caretaker to be allowed to use the rink to practice for an hour before everyone else gets there. Amat is one of the smallest on the rink but also one of the fastest but the coaches and his fellow hockey players have yet to notice.
He has been in love with Maya for years but although they are on speaking terms nothing has come of his interest in her. When Maya and another hockey player begin to develop an interest in each other Amat is sorely disappointed but hides it for the good of the team. Hockey is never satisfied with being part of your life, it wants to be it all.
Kevin is the star of the hockey team and the holder of all the towns hopes and dreams. He is dedicated and natural at the sport and a source of great pride for the town. His parents though show little interest in their son’s talents. They make sure he has the best and the right equipment, the right food from the catering company and his dad analyses his stats for every game but neither parent has attended more than two or three of his games.
Benji is Kevin’s best friend. A boy from the wrong side of the town with a reputation for being a violent trouble maker. Benji’s dad died when he was younger and he lives with his mother and sisters in a house that would fit in Kevin’s several times over.
The only one that believes in Benji is his couch David. He feels that the elements that make his a cause for concern off the pitch are what makes him an essential player on the pitch. He will do anything to protect Kevin.
When news of a violent and sickening act breaks shortly before the final of the hockey match the citizen of Beartown will be divided. Whose word do they believe and what will it mean for the hopes of the town and several of the key friendships within it when people fall on different sides of the debate.
There are few words that are harder to explain than ‘loyalty'. It’s always regarded as a positive characteristic, because a lot of people would say that many of the best things people do for each other occur precisely because of loyalty. The only problem is that many of the very worst things we do to each other occur because of the same thing.
The arguments put forward on the dominant side were sadly things I have heard said in real life. Some of the things that were said about the victim disgusted me. I felt angry with a lot of the characters for much of the later part of the novel and that is the sign of a great book.
“it’s only a game. It can only change people’s lives.’

Unfortunately I had to dnf this book. I got to just over 100 pages in and i just had to put it down. I was completely lost with all the ice hockey politics within this book that weren't hinted at in the description. Nothing grabbed my attention from the story or the chracters. I feel like the huge amount of emphasis to ice hockey should have been stated on the back becuase If i had known it was such a key feature I wouldn't have picked this one up.
As someone from the UK i have no idea about ice hockey, it's rules or politics so to be bombarded with nothing but that for 100 pages just left me completely uninterested. I'm sure for others this will be a good read, but I just didn't like it.

As one of the relatively rare specimens of British Ice Hockey fan, I was immediately taken with the premise of The Scandal – published in the US as Beartown – and hit the request button on Netgalley without hesitating, and I was absolutely delighted to be approved to read this. As much as I expected to enjoy it – it’s getting some rave reviews – I was blown away by this novel, and it’s likely to feature in my top books of 2017.
Late one evening towards the end of March, a teenager picked up a double-barrelled shotgun, walked into the forest, put the gun to someone else's forehead and pulled the trigger.
This is the story of how we got there.
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. Everyone can feel the excitement. 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?
I mentioned in the opening of my review that I am an Ice Hockey fan. It’s considered to be a minority sport in the UK, but I’m a season ticket holder for my local club, and have been watching it for several years now, so (I like to think that) I have a reasonable understanding of the sport. That said, if you’re not a fan of Ice Hockey, don’t let that put you off this novel, as prior knowledge of the game is not essential, and there aren’t many actual games included in the novel. Rather, Backman uses the sport as the glue that binds the community of Beartown together, and the thing that they hope might help revitalise their town, which has seen the number of jobs gradually decreasing, forcing people to relocate or commute to nearby cities for work.
The novel opens with the quote in the above synopsis – that is the entirety of chapter one. I love this opening. It immediately piqued my attention, and I wanted to know who was involved, and why they were taking such drastic action. And, I spent a large part of the novel trying to work out who was involved, and why. It becomes clearer as the novel progresses, although isn’t fully revealed until very near the end, and I had a few contenders in mind at various stages of the novel as to who was likely to be holding a gun to someone’s head.
I loved the setting of Beartown. Backman gives great insight into the community and the families that live there, which, like most places, covers a broad spectrum of people and personalities, and everyone has faced good and bad moments in their life. Backman manages the difficult balancing act of sharing the minutiae of the characters backgrounds without this feeling like an overload of information, and I came out of the novel feeling as though I knew all the residents personally. The Scandal is told from multiple points of view, but they are all portrayed so brilliantly that there is no danger of becoming confused as to who’s who. Some are more likeable than others, but they all have their part to play. There are some real standouts in the novel, however, and I loved Benji and Ana in particular.
I was instantly captivated by The Scandal and the mystery which is introduced so early on, and combined with the setting, the characters and the writing, this is one of my standout novels of the year. And yes, the Ice Hockey helped, but I think it would have worked whatever the town’s obsession was.
The Scandal was published on 10 August by Michael Joseph. Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the review copy.

I finished 'The Scandal' (previously published as 'Beartown') by Fredrik Backman over a week ago and I'm still processing it!

Set in a small hockey town, the characters are so well written they feel real - I was so invested in them that I forgot that the book had a twist: the scandal takes the book to a whole new level but I'd have been happy to just read about Maya, Kevin and Amat for hours. I enjoyed Backman's previous novels, but this is a massive step up from 'A Man Called Ove' - I felt a real connection; I felt as if I was taken to my local rink during the hockey scenes and I know the inner workings of a small town far too well. You know it's a good book when you spend half an hour stood up reading on the tram!

I've finished The Scandal and it was good! It took me a while to read because it's over 400 pages and it took a while for me to write this review too.

NetGalley provided me with an e-arc of The Scandal so thanks to them for letting me read it.

3 Stars!

The Scandal takes place in Beartown, which is in Scandinavia, in this novel. I believe that The Scandal was originally written in Swedish as Beartown. This is the English translation of that novel.

"Beartown isn't close to anything". This means that without hockey, the main thing that holds this community together, the people of Beartown wouldn't have anything. It's their life source.

"Want to bet?" Kevin grins.
"100 kronor"
Lyt nods. They shake on it"

They use the kronor as their currency. This is how we know the novel takes place in Scandinavia.

It's a very sports dominated book so if that isn't your type of book, maybe don't pick this up. There is emotional stuff as well though, although it's not a romance at all!

NOTE: There are rape scenes in this novel and it plays a huge part in the overall plot so if you're sensitive to anything to do with the topic of rape I wouldn't pick this up. Also a character is gay too. This isn't so big of a thing in The Scandal but it's there.

The novel is about a hockey team and what happens when a "scandal" puts one of their most renowned players in jeopardy of ever playing again. The above quote while also showing the kronor evidence, is also the start of the "scandal", that the title is based upon I'd say, as Lyt, one of the hockey players is betting 100 kronor on whether or not Kevin, another hockey player will sleep with a 15 year old girl. Will he though, or will he back out? You'll have to read The Scandal to find out.

Spoilers Below...

We start the book being introduced to our characters and seeing them training for the match. I honestly thought this was so boring. I felt as if nothing was happening in the overall plot for the first half of the story. I believe this same book used to be called BearTown, and maybe still is in some places? I wouldn't have kept reading if the word Scandal hadn't been in the title, I've got to say, as that was what made me request the arc in the first place.

We have the big, bulky guys that have always been on the team, as well as Amat who's mum, Fatima works as a cleaner at the rink. They're underprivileged. Amat is seen skating at the rink by the coach at the time and is handpicked to join the junior hockey team.

"Skates have never felt odd to him. On the contrary, when he sticks his feet in a pair of normal shoes he feels like a sailor stepping ashore"

shows that Amat only truly feels himself on the ice, while skating. When he's on land he's no better than anyone else. He gets bullied at first but then seems to get accepted when everybody sees just how good of a player he truly is.

When at a party the main player of the team, Kevin gets into a little trouble when he's accused of raping a 15 year old girl, Maya who also attends. That's what the title, The Scandal means, I think. Later on in the book one of the characters calls it a scandal because it literally affects all of the hockey fans of Beartown, which is everybody residing there.

“The council aren’t going to invest, they don’t want to put the hockey academy here after . . . the scandal".

The parents argue about the abuse scandal and who's lying and who's telling the truth. We, as the audience know what happened as it's written into the story. However, for the characters not directly involved it's all hearsay and they need to decide who to believe. This was probably the most interesting part of The Scandal for me. There were certain characters that spoke up for both sides. Kevin's team mates, apart from Amat supported him and Maya's family and best friend, Ana support her, along with Amat.

"But Kira still doesn't know how to deal with it". Kira and Peter lost a son before the events of The Scandal. This isn't a huge part of the novel but it's brought up a few times when what happened to Maya, their daughter overwhelms them. This is continued in "Two in their beds. One in heaven". Kira has to count her children to make sure they're still there. She feels unstable in her life because of the death of her son as well as not being able to help Maya through what's happening to her.

"Amat looks up at the stands. Maya is on the steps below the cafeteria; she sees him. He's been longing for that since the first day of primary school. Now, she sees him".

This is significant because Amat feels shut out of the team. However, when he sees Maya in the stands something clicks and he starts believing in himself more.

"He loves that girl more than he loves hockey". Amat loves Maya. When he sees her in Kevin's room at the party, where the main plot of The Scandal begins he's shocked but he doesn't think Maya would have wanted what happened.

"That's the thing about hockey. When you go into a rink. All those sounds you only recognise if you play. And...that feeling when you walk from the locker room to the rink, that last inch when the floor turns to ice. The moment when you glide out...you have wings then".

We have a lot of these hockey central quotes throughout the book. They gave the book an overall complete feeling for me. Whenever I felt lost while reading, I'd read a hockey central quote and it would bring me back to the main story. This is what Benji thinks when he steps out onto the ice. He feels free.

"Because you love it so much. I'd like to understand something you love". There's also a subplot involving one of the players realising he's gay. Benji comes to the conclusion that he's gay when he sees a bass player and they get to know each other. We never learn the bass players name. I liked this as it gave some mystery to the novel. I could imagine the bass player as whoever I wanted. I wasn't told he was a certain person.

"Kevin likes the fact that she's different. That her eyes never quite stop moving, that she's always watching. That she seems to know who she is. He wishes he could be like that". Kevin is jealous of the persona that Maya shows. Is this perhaps why he abuses her? We never get an answer to this question but it's what I, as the reader think. That Kevin wanted to spoil a young girl's life worse that what hockey spoilt his.

"Hockey is never satisfied being part of your life. It wants all of it". This shows how all of the boys lives are affected by hockey. It dominates their lives.

"The greatest reason for his love of hockey, from the very first moment he stood on a pair of skates, was the silence". This is what Peter, Maya's father thinks of hockey. As I've previously said all of the plots of The Scandal surround hockey. Hockey is the main theme. This is further demonstrated by

"It's only a game. It can only change people's lives", which let's us, the reader know that it's like hockey is the be all and end all in Beartown. If you don't like hockey, you're a nobody. There aren't any characters who hate hockey. It would have been good if there had been one character who didn't like the sport to show the differences in likes and dislikes, I think. This would have added an extra, interesting layer to the story.

Overall, I thought The Scandal was an okay read. It certainly wasn't my favourite but it wasn't my least favourite either. I found I could connect to lots of the characters so there was something in it for me. Hence, my 3 star rating.

What did you think of The Scandal or Beartown? Did you enjoy it? Did you find anything of interest in The Scandal?

Firstly thank you to the publishers & Net Galley for and ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

I loved this book. It just got me, gripped me and kept me wanting more.
It had me crying on the train and not wanting to put it down.
Ice hockey is not something I know about but it doesn't matter, this isn't a book about ice hockey it is a book about a town and more importantly the people who inhabit that town.
It is very well written. The characters are powerful and you really get involved in their stories.
The way the book is written really draws you in. It is an emotional rollercoaster of a ride.
I will be recommending this book to everyone!!

I have read a few other books by Fredrik Backman and liked the dark humour.
This book is slightly different and I found it quite a difficult read. It is set in the ice hockey obsessed Beartown, a remote town in the forest.
The first half of the book introduces you to the main characters central to the story, and then half way through the book is the event that splits the town. The second half of the book is about how the different people and families react to this and towards each other.

It was well written and I am glad I finished the book, but it was not an easy read.

I started this book with a little trepidation as I know nothing about Hockey and when introduced to a lot of characters at the beginning I wasn't sure if the book would hold my attention. I was totally wrong the characters were necessary and were so well defined that when something happens that changes the whole feeling of not only the run down town and the hockey team that they pin their hopes on to 'put them on the map' but the whole dynamics of families were put at risk. I was swept away in the stream of emotion that carried Bearstown and felt so wrung out when it spat me out at the end.
I had to wait a day before I could get myself together to write this review and I know I haven't done it justice but it is a well earned 5* from me.Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for my copy of the book.

This is such a wonderful portrait of a small town completely obsessed by a sport. The book tells the tale of Beartown, a small town struggling for survival and their amazing junior hockey team who could well put the town back on the map. From the first page, we are told that this is the story of how one teenager came to be standing with a shotgun to the head of another teenager and so throughout, we are trying to work out which two teenagers will find themselves in this position and why. The first half of the narrative focuses on the hockey and how much it inhabits the heart of everyone in Beartown and in this, it reminded me very much of Friday Night Lights. We are introduced to all of the many characters, each exquisitely rendered and completely believable. Backman has captured the nuances of the interpersonal relationships that feature in any close knit community and he describes the adoration felt for the hockey team and it's star player, with clarity and searing wisdom. The second half of the book is difficult to discuss without divulging any key plot points and so I will only say that it is, at times, excruciatingly painful to read, horrifying in the extreme and utterly honest about human nature. I cannot overstate how expertly crafted this narrative is and I am sure that this is a book that will stick with me for a long time to come.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is a tale of morals, and raises lots of questions, it is a book that makes you think and consider what you would do.It is very clever you cannot read this book without putting yourself in the thick of the action and looking at your own morals and strength of character.Do you go with the crowd, or do you stand, possibly alone, its brilliant in its simplicity, but in other ways ts not simple at all.This is about a small town with small town characters, it is well written and paints a vivid picture .The town is crumbling economically and in other ways, the saving grace is its ice hockey team where the top players are treated like rock stars and bring hope, the weight of responsibility is on their shoulders.I found this to be an interesting story and it certainly made me think.I am grateful to Netgalley and the publishers for an ARC in return for an honest review.

I love how sometimes the simplest of ideas make for the best kind of stories, if they're written well. And this is an astonishing piece of storytelling and one that I am struggling to get out of my head!

'Late one evening, toward the end of March, a teenager picked up a double-barreled shotgun, walked into the forest, put the gun to someone else's forehead, and pulled the trigger.

This is the story of how we got there.'

This is the quote that lured me into this book! That and knowing it is from the author who charmed my world with A Man Called Ove. But this is nothing like that book and just proves what a wonderful storyteller Fredrik Backman is and how he doesn't seem to be afraid of writing something completely different.

The story is simple and revolves around a town that is obsessed with hockey. Every aspect of the town and its' inhabitants are governed by the success of the hockey team. It is what brings the small town in a large swedish forest together - and the effect it has on tearing them all apart when sides have to be chosen.

It is difficult to review the story without adding spoilers so i won't focus too much on the plot of which I knew very little about, and I think that is the best way to enjoy this book. The less you know beforehand, the better! So I will focus on the storytelling which starts off slowly and flits from character to character, telling you snippets of how they fit into Beartown - from the teenagers on the hockey team, to the coach, to the sponsors,to the parents - and this helps slowly build up a picture of just how much Hockey is at the heart of the town. So you can't help but be drawn in as a reader so that you become a fly on the wall of every house, training pitch, garden etc while the author puts the pieces together to lead up to the events of 'that day'.

I just couldn't put this book down once I had started reading it as I didn't want to miss anything - from the simplicity of everyday life, to the harrowing consequences of a night gone wrong and I found it to be so powerful and absorbing. It is a wonderful insight on family and community dynamics, and it is often not an easy read because of some of the subject matter where it pulls no punches and that just adds to the impact it had on me as a reader.

One of my books of 2017 - a MUST read!!

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I was really looking forward to reading this book as absolutely loved a Man Called Ove. This book was not as good I am afraid but I still read it anyway.

Originally published as Beartown, this was a book about a small town in Sweden and it's hockey team. A tragic event occurs which leaves the town reeling in shock. Great characterisation and setting, with some real descriptive passages which transport you to northern Sweden. Another really good Swedish mystery. Thank you Net Galley for my copy. I reviewed on Goodreads.

Cannot review a book that has so many letters missing that it becomes a chore rather than a pleasure!

Thrilling and compelling, scandanivan crime meets Jodi picoult

In a small town where sport and loyalty to your team is everything, what happens when a scandal brews. Do you choose your team and the town or are you willing to forfeit it all for the truth, and what will the repercussions be.
So many lives are affected and it's rare that an author can make you want to weep for victims on both sides.
Absolutely blown away by the amount of emotion and energy that Fredrik Backman has managed to generate within these pages. I read a Man Called Ove and loved it, and I've enjoyed his other titles but this is beyond everything else.

The book is based in the fictional Scandinavian town of Beartown. Once prosperous it is now struggling and most of the residents blame the fact that their ice hockey team is no longer successful for this. Now however the junior team is through to the semi-finals of the national competition and the whole town is hopeful that they will go through to and win the final and the new hockey academy will be built in the town. Then an incident happens involving one of the hockey team and the town struggles to cope - some think the incident should have been dealt with internally at the hockey club and others think the police should deal with it. The opening chapter of the book describes a teenager holding a gun to another teenagers head and pulling the trigger but instead of explaining why this has happened straight away the author describes the town and its residents and the influence ice hockey has on everybody. This approach gives the reader the chance to get to know all the characters involved, get a feel for the town and how the incident affects everybody. Really enjoyed reading this book.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publishers and the author for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Beartown is a small isolated community in Sweden and it’s in decline. The future looks bleak, but one thing the town does have going for it is ice hockey and it looks like the junior hockey team is going to be able to revive the town’s fortunes and give this small well-meaning town a future and something to hope for. But then it all goes badly wrong. Told form various points of view, this is a heart-breaking and compelling tale of ordinary people caught up in an obsession for a sport, a sport around which the whole town revolves, and which ultimately blinds them to all sense of proportion. This is a far more serious book than Backman’s previous ones, dealing as it does with issues of great moral complexity. Sport is at its heart but it’s about so much more – parenthood, racism, loyalty, perseverance, and the dangers of turning fallible sportsmen into heroes. A wonderful thought-provoking read, engaging throughout, with memorable and authentic characters that live both on and off the page.

The Scandal by Fredrik Backman (translated by Neil Smith) is a contemporary novel about small town living in Sweden. It is a town both united and divided by ice hockey. Ice hockey dominates everything. It is the be-all and end-all.
The town revolves around ice hockey. You are either in the 'in' crowd or you are outside looking in. The novel shows this obsession can blur and warp people's thinking.
There is the theme of family. Family sticks together. The ice hockey family demand loyalty. There is a high price to pay if you do not give it.
Friendships are important. Some have been forged in childhood.
Ice hockey makes heroes. Once placed on the pedestal, there is only one way to fall.
The novel has the difficult topic of rape. The aftermath and shocks are realistically portrayed. "\she's scared of the darkness in the middle of the day." The parents desire for both revenge and to protect and feelings of failure are all understandable. "Everyone has a thousand wishes before a tragedy, but just one afterwards." The reader can empathise with both the victim and we understand the feelings of both sets of parents. It is all sensitively done.
There is much use of four letter words in the novel which I did not particularly like. However I do realise that their inclusion was for realism.
The Scandal was a novel of two halves. I must admit to finding the first half hard to get into but I realise now that that was the author setting the scene. The second half was extremely intense. I was on tenterhooks, anticipating the action to come.
The Scandal was not my usual genre but it was an interesting, if rather disturbing read.
I received this book for free. A favourable review was not required and all views expressed are my own.

A rollercoaster of emotions this story set in a small Swedish town in a large forest. The economy is dwindling and the town is getting smaller but, they all have something that keeps them all together is Hockey. You don't have to like hockey to love this story. The junior team is in the semi final of the biggest youth tournament in the country. The story tells us of the days leading up to that. The story talks about rape, homersexuality and growing up and how this sport brings everyone together.

I thought this story was a breath of fresh air to the stories I normally read. It had well developed characters, it was an up put downable story that I didn't want to end. 5/5 stars