Peter Andersson, Maya’s father, is the General Manager of Beartown Ice Hockey Club. Now, Beartown is trying to heal, but the healing process will bring a rivalry between two towns-Beartown and Hed-and an accident that kills Vidar Rinnius, a Beartown hockey player who, despite his tough exterior, is kindhearted and falls in love with Maya’s best friend, Ana. Their economy is suffering, and their town identity has recently been shaken by the rape of Maya Andersson, in which the town sided with Kevin Erdahl, the Beartown star hockey player who committed the crime. With immense compassion and insight, Fredrik Backman-“the Dickens of our age” ( Green Valley News )-reveals how loyalty, friendship, and kindness can carry a town through its most challenging days.Beartown is a hardworking community where the townspeople live for their hockey team. Here is a declaration of love for all the big and small, bright and dark stories that give form and color to our communities. By the time the last goal is scored, a resident of Beartown will be dead, and the people of both towns will be forced to wonder if, after everything, the game they love can ever return to something as simple and innocent as a field of ice, two nets, and two teams.

As the big game approaches, the not-so-innocent pranks and incidents between the communities pile up and their mutual contempt intensifies. But bringing this team together proves to be a challenge as old bonds are broken, new ones are formed, and the town’s enmity with Hed grows more and more acute.

Soon a team starts to take shape around Amat, the fastest player you’ll ever see Benji, the intense lone wolf always dutiful and eager-to-please Bobo and Vidar, a born-to-be-bad troublemaker. As the tension mounts between the two adversaries, a newcomer arrives who gives Beartown hockey a surprising new coach and a chance at a comeback. What makes it worse is the obvious satisfaction that all the former Beartown players, who now play for a rival team in the neighboring town of Hed, take in that fact. So it’s a cruel blow when they hear that Beartown ice hockey might soon be disbanded. No matter how difficult times get, they’ve always been able to take pride in their local ice hockey team. A small community tucked deep in the forest, Beartown is home to tough, hardworking people who don’t expect life to be easy or fair. Have you ever seen a town rise? Ours did that, too. Have you ever seen a town fall? Ours did. The #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove and Beartown returns with an unforgettable novel “about people-about strength and tribal loyalty and what we unwittingly do when trying to show our boys how to be men” (Jojo Moyes).

Us against you series