The Winners
Fredrik Backman
reviewed by Lou Jacobs

readersremains.com | Goodreads

Finally comes the third volume in Backman’s masterpiece involving “Beartown;” the anxiously awaited conclusion to the saga involving a trove of beloved characters plus a host of new relevant characters.
What hasn’t changed is the lifelong rivalry and hostility between the two neighboring forest towns of Beartown and Hed. Although this is the third volume, it can still be enjoyed and devoured as a standalone due to Backman’s seamless interwoven backstory. Because of the wonderful style of his flowing insightful prose it is easy to follow the complex interwoven storylines connecting the multitude of multi-layered characters.
We soon learn that good people are capable of evil when pressured and evil people can unexpectedly surprise with goodness. Explored will be many of life’s endless quandaries and emotions: friendship, love, corruption, politics, money, power, abuse, rape, hypocrisy, rage, family, parenthood, and community. It truly is amazing the breadth and depth of social issues that are dealt with in this moving and profound story, The narrative effortlessly glides through one heartfelt moment to the next. Male and female readers alike will often be brought to tears of sadness and joy.
The novel begins with a tumultuous storm tearing through the forests bordering the two competitive towns of Beartown and Hed. The squall brings epic wind gusts and snow resulting in uprooted trees, closed roads, and destroyed buildings, including the collapse of Hed’s hockey rink roof, along with chaos and deaths in both towns. During the storm, crazy and wild Ana (best friend of Maya) drives her drunk father’s truck through insurmountable obstacles to help a midwife from Hed (Hannah) to save a woman, who is giving birth in a stuck vehicle. Stories of daring rescue will abound, however in the aftermath the death of one individual will have far-reaching effects on both towns. Momentarily both towns will pull together to mourn a common loss. It also will bring back home two of our main beloved characters, Maya Andersson and Benji Ovich.
Maya was victim of rape by Kevin Erdahl, a hockey star for the Beartown club. She bore the wrath of the town. How dare she accuse the star of their beloved team, of such a heinous act? Surely it was her fault. Why should he not continue playing? Benji Ovich was the best friend of both Kevin and Maya. He was the team’s enforcer and protected Kevin on the ice.
His life was left in turmoil, once the town became aware that he was gay. Independently both Maya and Benji left Beartown. Maya left to pursue her life’s passion at music college, while Benji left for Asia to pursue drugs and alcohol, in a setting devoid of hockey. They both return in respect for the death of beloved Ramona—barkeeper and owner of the Bearskin Pub—the essential meeting place of the Beartown community. Their presence will alter the dynamics of the competing towns, which encompasses not only the hockey clubs, but also the social and economic fabric. The struggles and confrontations involving both towns intensify in the aftermath of the storm. Tensions flare and grow, even resulting in fights involving the neighboring spectators attending the junior hockey game. It’s rumored that Hed hockey team will be shut down because of the collapse of their rink’s roof and their financial troubles. It’s also rumored that the local paper ( located in Hed ) is investigating corruption and possible embezzlement involving the Beartown hockey club. Animosity escalates as violence flares.
Central to the story is not only the importance of community, but more so the overwhelming need for family and friendship. One of the most important new characters is Alicia. A seven-year-old abused girl from a poor broken family. She possesses an extreme degree of talent and desire to play hockey. She will be nurtured and loved by many of our beloved main characters, including Sune, the retired hockey coach, and Peter, the team’s previous general manager ( and former team player, and NHL player). Peter since leaving the team is having a difficult time in finding meaning and purpose in life. His marriage with Kira, his lawyer wife, is in turmoil. Many secrets remain between the two, as they drift apart.
Fredrik Backman masterfully weaves a multi-layered complex story with multiple converging plot lines, that escalate in tension and intrigue and culminate in a heart rendering denouement.
Explored are many opposing circumstances: fierce love by mother and father, as opposed to abuse and neglect of children, revenge or forgiveness, courage and cowardice, many and variable emotions abound: love / hate and joy / sadness.
I savored this novel, dreading to say goodbye to so many old and new amazing characters. Even though this is supposedly the conclusion, hopefully Backman will explore in future novels the lives of Alicia or Ana. Their further trial and tribulations are begging to be told.
Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing an Uncorrected Proof in exchange for an honest review. (less)

Fredrik Backman never fails to deliver a well-thought out, poignant and heartfelt story. This third addition to his Beartown series is no exception. Backman is not afraid to explore and address multiple very serious issues facing society today. He puts names and faces to them and is a superb storyteller unlike any other. There is a lot going on in this book but it is all handled deftly and with humanity.

Five thousand stars for this book if I could. On how I love Beartown. The author does a spectacular job breaking your heart over and over again, all while weaving such a beautiful story, you hang on to every single word up until the very last. These are stories told about tragedies, importance of family and the ties that bind everyone together during hard times. It’s about hockey but not about hockey at all. It’s about death and life, love and hatred. I am so sad this trilogy has come to an end, but I will read these books again.

Thank you thank you NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review

The Winners was absolutely amazing! It shattered my heart but let’s be honest, which Fredrik Backman book doesn’t. He’s just got this magic writing style I can’t get enough off. The Winners did not disappoint at all. Such a satisfying ending to this series. I loved how everyone got back together in this small eerie town for the funeral. I will never be whole again because of Benji though. It’s sad to let these characters go now. They’ve been part of my life for such a long time. Thank you for letting me read this book early it’s been an amazing journey I won’t forget.

I really, REALLY wanted this to be better than it was. And, to be completely fair, it had its moments. But at the risk of being as cheesy as roughly half of this book was: this series should've ended with a bangbangbang - not the protracted whimper it did in fact end with.

There are three major problems here: the first and probably most egregious is that most of the characters we already know had reached the end of their narrative arcs in book 2 - or are maybe so close to the end of them that they needed only a few more chapters each to be wound up. Benji has basically nothing to do the entire book but regret things he's already regretted; Ana, in lieu of anything to do after the first act, has her personality turned up to screechingly loud and annoying levels; and Kira and Peter's marital issues - easily the most tedious storyline - are dragged out to a yawn inducing degree. Even the most minor of characters (Teemu, Alicia, Tails) just feel like they're retracing the things that happened to them in previous books. And I could maybe say well, whatever, I love these characters so much that I'd really just like to spend time with them even if it never feels like they're moving forward, but then there's issue number two: how incredibly protracted the pacing is here.

It's most obvious in the beginning, where Backman takes roughly a hundred pages to forecast a terrible, life-altering storm, a solid twenty-five percent of which is purely set dressing and heavy-handed foreshadowing. And man, if you were hoping the foreshadowing would let up there, sorry, there's a reason this book is twice the length of Beartown while telling half the story. And what a story it could've been too: for all that I've just complained that it felt like the characters we already knew were just spinning their wheels, the new characters Backman introduced were almost instantly engaging and had complicated, fascinating stories all their own. More significantly, while Benji, Ana, et al. may have reached the end of their arcs Beartown and Hed have not, so all the stuff about the tensions building between those two towns really worked for me. If only it hadn't petered out (badumtiss!) before the OTT finale, and if only Backman could have written it without constantly editorializing.

This would be issue number three: the lengthy, look-into-the-camera, spell-it-out-for-the-audience spiels about how difficult it is to be a parent and to be in a marriage and also to love hockey and to experience loss and yes yes yes, okay! Okay! We get it. Being alive and having relationships with other people is tough: the characters and situations here are strong enough to bear that message in action and development; it does not need to be explained over and over why these people are getting emotional. Particularly when you've already had several similar situations earlier on in the book. This is something that feels like a hallmark of Backman's writing and in small doses I do feel like it works to gently underscore rather than to messily highlight (see: Beartown), but here it just makes those six hundred pages feel all the longer.

And it's strange, because it does feel like there's material enough for six hundred pages - and having the tensions between the towns and Matteo's storylines dovetail rather than rather than having one end and the other act as the finale would have made the length all the more worthwhile - and yet it also feels like a lot of that material never really gets off the ground. Take, for example, the fact that there's a lot of talk about the drama that will ensue between the Beartown and Hed hockey teams during the game but that there's not a single hockey game in the entire book. And yes, we do get the drama, but I don't know, without the game being played...it just felt emblematic of there being something missing here that had been so present in Beartown and to a lesser extent in Us Against You.

And yet, there were traces of the first book's greatness here: how could there not be? When Backman did choose to bring the plot out it WAS interesting and there was a reveal that actually made me gasp out loud it was so well done. It just wasn't all it could've been. It maybe would've been better to graduate to a new cast entirely. Like, say, Alicia's generation.

I'm left with a lot of mixed feelings here. Because parts of this book really left me cold but other parts I did really enjoy, and then there's just the fact that I love this crazy forest hockey town and, again, would have happily just sat in on scenes of them hanging out at the lake. I can't tell if I wanted there to be more to this or less, if I wanted Backman to get more deeply into the characters or just for him to show vignettes of their lives. What we ended up with here was a kind of middle ground, half okay, half not. This series could have gone out better than that. But, you know, if you've read the first two you basically have to read this to see where it all ends up. (And if you've still just only read Beartown...you may be better off staying there.)

Another beautifully written book by Fredrik Backman. I just love his stories and his characters, so I hope this is not the last of Bear Town. Backman has a knack for weaving these complicated stories and connections, making you question morals and principles, The Winners is no exception.

I have not read the other 2 books in this series. I honestly didn't know this one was tied to the Beartown series until I was well into The Winners. I kept reading even though this book was super long. Backman is a beautiful storyteller and I don't know that I really missed out by not reading the first 2 books. I am interested enough now to go back and pick them up. The sorrow in this small town can be physically felt by the reader of this book. I highly recommend, especially if you are a fan of Backman's writing style! Thank you to Netgalley for the chance to read and review!

I expected to be emotionally destroyed by this conclusion and I was correct. Once again Fredrik Backman weaves together a story in a masterful way, and the result is tragically beautiful. It’s a book about the nature of life and the human spirit, and I am just very honored to read this book.

I laughed, I cried, my heart was ripped out and stomped on, if this was a physical book I probably would have thrown it across the room, and yet felt satisfied with the ending so obviously I just finished the latest Fredrik Backman book!

What a master storyteller! He has such an insight into human nature and I love everything I’ve read by him and will continue to sing his praises and recommend any of his books to all I meet.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

Wow. I held my breath listening to the last hour of the audio and had to walk away from it returning to a better time where my headspace could process how the ending was unfolding.

The trilogy ended with a BANG BANG BANG. The ending was not unexpected but surprising given the state of the world right now, mainly that of the US, not the setting of the story but still I am surprised that Backman ended the story the way he did.

I loved the addition of new characters, the continued strength of the female leads and the exposed vulnerabilities of the male characters. In that way, it was very well-rounded.

I question the creation of the last short storyline seemingly inserted to help wrap-up the series. It did work but was repetitive so that was surprising.

This last one was messy, sad and very violent with triggers abound so tread lightly.

I look forward to a return to lighter fare from Backman, a return to his earlier works that made me fall for his writing and wit.

Thank you Net Galley for this early copy.

I’m probably in the minority but this book was just too long. It was a fitting end to Beartown I enjoyed all 3 books and happy to revisit Sweden and all the local residents. The storm was the main focus of the book and how everyone reacted to it. Fans will love this Beartown book.

“Do you want to understand people? Really understand them? Then you need to know all the best that we are capable of.”

The Winners is the third book in the Beartown trilogy by the iconic philosopher-novelist, Fredrik Backman. In the afterward, he tells us, “To you who have read this whole of the saga, I’d just like to say that I hope it gave you something, because I gave it absolutely everything I had.” I am one of them, and I believe him, and yes, it did. My thanks go to Net Galley and Atria Books for the invitation to read and review. It’s been an honor.

I began reading with a certain amount of trepidation, because everything I’d heard and read, some of it by the author himself, suggested that this wasn’t going to be gentle reading. Here’s how he opens it:

“August ends with sultry, ominous heat before autumn kicks the door in at the end of the month and the temperature tumbles in free fall. The natural world around us becomes erratic and aggressive, the dogs and hunters feel it first, but soon everyone else does too. We notice the warnings, yet still the storm arrives with such force that it knocks the breath out of us. It devastates the forest and blocks out the sky, it attacks our homes and our towns like a grown man beating a child.”

Woof.

The characters we’ve met in the first two books, Beartown and Us Against You, are all present and accounted for, and now that his faithful readers already know most of the central characters, Backman gives us a few more. The new hockey coach is Elizabeth Zackell, a quirky individual if ever there was one, and smart as hell. We are introduced to a family from Hed, the nearby town whose club is Beartown’s archrival; we become attached to these people, too. But ultimately, we see the way that great love and passionate loyalty can go hand in glove with violence and even evil.

It's a story that can take your breath away.

I won’t try to address the whole story or individual characters; that’s Backman’s job, and he does it quite nicely. I had a quibble with the way the first book ended; I said in my review that it was over-the-top, bordering on glib. I see now that this was deliberate, and he wants us to see that not every family responds to a crisis as well as the Andersons have, and not every victim of a violent crime is able to see justice done; not everyone has the heroic instincts of Amet, the player that runs toward the fire rather than away from it.

The hallmarks that make Backman’s work so special are all here. I can count on one hand the number of male authors that genuinely respect women and are willing to go to the mat for women’s rights, and he is one of them. He is a vocal champion of the rights of gays and lesbians, and his prose shows keen understanding of the struggle they face, even now that their legal rights are protected in much of the world. His capacity to juggle a large cast of dynamic characters, developing nearly every one of them in a way that is consistent, along with their relationships with each other, makes me feel as if I could recognize them on the street; I don’t mean one character, or two. I mean at least a dozen of them. There are a number of characters that do bad things or make bad choices, but only a couple are genuinely bad people, and though we see little of them, they cast long shadows on these two communities.

He got the ending exactly right.

Can you read this book without reading the other two first? Don’t be a dick. Of course not. Without familiarizing yourself with the characters in the first book before the second, and the second before the third, you won’t be able to keep everyone straight; also, this third volume is about the same length as the first and second combined. Start with the first one.

Highly recommended.

Well, Fredrik Backman has done it again. In the last of the Beartown books, The Winners, the stories of all the people he has been writing about come together. A huge storm comes through the area and sets off a chain of events - people meeting and helping one another, other people going unnoticed, a death, and more. These events lead to more drama than the town has seen in a long time. Beartown and Hed are still fierce competitors and the local politicians and council are constantly trying to find ways to blame one another. So really, nothing has changed, but everything quickly does. In his usual manner, Fredrik Backman weaves a story of love and loss, friendship and sorrow, and of a small town trying to survive the unthinkable. I’m sad this is the last book of this series and will miss the characters and their stories.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

This tome brings to a close the trilogy that is the story of Beartown and Hed, two small towns where hockey rules everything. The towns are now a couple of years past the tragic events that occurred in book one. There continues to be a strong rivalry and sometimes hatred between the two townspeople. Fortunately we get to see the goodness that also lives. While there is still more tragedy to live through, there is also a positive outcome for many of the people we’ve come to spend so much time with.

I would not have read all three books if I didn’t feel some connection with the characters. The author’s writing is very descriptive. I must admit that I am a reader who like action and dialogue. By book three I did find myself skimming through some of the overly long paragraphs. I thought this story was a good representation of the intensity of small town sports and the extremes that people will go to in battling for something they love.

ARC from Netgalley.

After reading and loving Beartown and Us Against You, I wasn't sure if I was more excited or nervous to read The Winners. I couldn't wait to revisit the world of Beartown that Backman has created, but I was devastated at the prospect of saying goodbye to these characters forever and worried that The Winners wouldn't live up to the beauty of the first two books in the trilogy. I quickly found that I had nothing to fear. Backman's prose is as gorgeous and lyrical as ever and his character development has reached a new high. I'm mournful to say goodbye to my friends in Beartown, but I eagerly await Backman's next novel.

Fredrik Backman once agains delivers a book that readers will want to inhale. This is the third book in his Beartown series. Even though the good majority of the book is of a slower pace, The Winners does start off with a flurry of excitement and ends with some more.

Much more than his other previous books, I found Backman heavily used foreshadowing in this story. I could feel the tension building. I knew that once again Backman was going to filet me emotions all over the place by ripping a beloved character from the book. The foreshadowing was palpable.

For those, like me, who love Backman's unique style of writing will not be disappointed with this book. He continues to have a beautiful way of describing people, place and events in a way that resonates with me. He is a master at his craft and once again he has proven that I will read anything and everything this author writes.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5. My only regret is that I didn't read all three books closer together so I remembered more of the characters before diving in to The Winners.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publishers. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Another masterful take by backman. I love this author and can't wait to see what he comes up with next

At 688 pages, this weighty tome gives readers a conclusion befitting the beloved series. I wanted more faster from Backman, but he keeps perfect pace closing the chapter on the bears from Beartown. This is definitely one I'll read again and treasure.

Many thanks to Atria Books, the author, and NetGalley for sharing this gem with me.

I adored 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘰𝘸𝘯, 5⭐️ read all the way!

I liked 𝘜𝘴 𝘈𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘮 very much, 4⭐️ only due to a slow start.

This finale drew me in right away, thanks to my deep love for the characters, especially Ana, Benji, and Amat.

However, as the prose continued on and on and on…it began to lose me. I wondered frequently, where was the editing? I’ve got some red pens I could’ve loaned out to cross out all the repetition!

It felt as if the plot meandered afar, trying to find its way. Honestly, this might’ve been a far better book at 380, instead of 680.

I still love the characters; they will always live in my heart. I’m just not convinced we needed more stories from Hed and Beartown?!

Fredrik Backman is one of my favourite authors. I’ve read and loved almost everything he’s written, so I was excited to get a copy of Winners to review.

Backman does a masterful job of revealing the inner workings of everyday people. When he describes in Winners all the deep and fearful and beautiful feelings of being a parent, I know exactly what he is talking about. Backman gives his readers an opportunity to walk in someone else’s shoes and (hopefully) become a more understanding and compassionate person from the journey.

Winners tries to takes us on that familiar, enlightening journey. However, it falls a bit short. For me, Winners doesn’t have that lifting sense of hope or those glimpses of beautiful humanity that seem to weave through Backman’s other books. I wasn’t moved by Winners like I was with Beartown and Us Against You. It’s good, it’s just not as great as Backman’s other works.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

#NetGalley