Two years have passed since the events of Beartown and many things have changed since then. One thing remains the same however, and that’s Ice Hockey is more than just a sport.
Fredrik Backman is a master of the written word and the way he can encapsulate everything worth knowing about a character in a paragraph is simply masterful. He can introduce a new character and within half a page you feel as if you know them intimately. And the characters are what makes this book.
This novel is ostensibly about an Ice Hockey team but it is so much more than that. Backman uses sport to show us about human nature, about how we are a tribal community with all that that entails. Out in the woods you cannot survive on your own and the residents of Beartown know this all too well. They help each other in times of need but when threatened they can become dangerous, to outsiders as well as to each other.
A myriad of themes are explored here; love, sacrifice, forgiveness, family, racism as well as classism and all are touched upon with absolute beauty and insight. No one can write about the human condition like Backman, with laser cut precision which gets right to the heart of things.
As the final book in the trilogy The Winners was perfect. My heart was broken and then stitched back together with threads of joy and hope. Some books remind you of why you fell in love with reading in the first place and this one does just that.

We’ve waited four years for the conclusion to Fredrik Backman’s acclaimed Beartown saga, and what a triumph it is. The Winners is everything I hoped it would be and more: atmospheric, compassionate and reflective; its heartbreaking sadness tempered by moments of the sweetest joy. And all of it swaddled in Backman’s uniquely rich but wholly accessible prose.

We’re back in Beartown, two years after the horrific events that tore it apart. Much has changed. More has stayed the same. The familiar characters are here, many of them still battling their personal demons and each other.

The story opens with a storm, a death and two homecomings. There are political shenanigans, continued friction between Beartown and its neighboring, rival town of Hed, and a prevailing, blood-chilling sense of impending doom. Evil will rear its ugly head once more before these two communities can reach a truce and finally start to heal.

It’s hard to explain just how powerful this story is. Backman makes you live it, breathe the atmosphere, experience the emotion. In his hands, this community and its people rise up from the pages and swallow you whole.

His writing is graceful and fluid with a momentum that carries you forward apace. To read quickly, though, is to risk overlooking this author’s extraordinary wordmanship, which is so meticulous, there are messages in almost every sentence.

For me though, in this novel sparkling with gems, the most exquisite is neither the prose nor the storytelling, but the nameless narrator: the all-seeing, all-knowing voice, whose observations and philosophical reflections are tiny pearls of wisdom to be exclaimed over, picked up and admired.

At its heart, this memorable trilogy is about family and community, the ties that bind and the evil that breaks. I did not want Beartown’s story to end the way it did. Backman prepared me for it, but it still broke me; I still howled in pain. Then he rescued me with a glimpse into a happier, hopeful future.

In his acknowledgments Backman writes: “I hope it [the saga] gave you something because I gave it absolutely everything I had.” It did, and thank you.

The Winners starts off reintroducing the reader to all the beloved characters of Beartown, a fictional town in Sweden that is obsessed with ice hockey and its rivals Hed. We meet Hannah and Johnny and their four kids in Hed but we're two years on from the last novel and in true Backman style a sense of doom is prevalent throughout. I don't know any other author that writes as such an omniscient narrator, that can create so much tension and foreboding. We know bad things are going to happen and when they do they have you in tears.

There are quite a few content warnings for this, as in all the books, but I'll add them at the bottom of this review. I was saying to the lovely group I was buddy reading with, that the tears are partly because it's all over. We've known this town for so long that they feel like family and mostly there is hope for the town and characters are given the ending they deserve but there is some tragedy. It had me sobbing because he has such a way with words, he knows how to philosophise about life like no other author I know 💙
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Content warnings: death, death of an animal, murder, imminent birth, accidental injury in a factory, use of offensive words for disabled folk.

The Winners by Fredrik Backman
I give this book 5 stars

‘It’s often said that winners write history, but there are no winners here’
This is a small story about big questions.
It's a story about family, community, life.
It starts with a storm - and a death.
But how does it end?

This is the 3rd book in a series and you could read it without having read the others but the reader would benefit from reading BearTown and Us Against You for a more in depth backstory.
I absolutely LOVED this and didn’t want to put it down (literally) but equally didn’t want it to end! This book like both the others is extremely character driven, the author craft’s these characters so well they come alive between the pages and you feel like you know them personally strengths and flaws and you truly care for them. BearTown and Hed are described so vividly l feel like I want to go visit. Fredrik Backman has a truly unique writing style that connects with the reader and you get to experience the highs and lows of a close knit community,rivalries,friendships,families, hockey,money,revenge and tragedy in a way few authors can create.The observations and quotes sprinkled throughout add that extra touch. It’s 2 years later and Maya and Benji are back. I felt like I went on an emotional journey with this book’s storyline and knowing l would be saying a final goodbye and lm now left bereft. Side note- you don’t have to be a hockey fan to enjoy this incredible series.
With thanks to Netgalley,Fredrik Backman and , Simon & Schuster UK for my chance to read and review this book

I would like to thank Netgalley and Simon & Schuster UK for an advance copy of The Winners, the third novel in the Beartown trilogy, set in the remote Swedish town of Beartown.

I must admit that I baulked when I first opened The Winners as my Kindle was telling me it was a 15+ hour read. It’s not as long as that, but it is still a lengthy, meaty read told in a very idiosyncratic style. The author switches from character to character narrating not just their present, but their past too and offering insights into their future. All done in a folksy tone that passes comment on their actions and animadverts on human behaviour in general. It creates a tremendous sense of intimacy for the reader and helps them identify with a relatively large cast of characters.

I have read the previous novels in the series, but the details have become hazy in my elderly brain so it was almost like starting again with the bonus of familiarity with the writer’s style. Fortunately all the salient details are recapped so the novel could be read as a stand-alone, but, on the other hand, they could not be read in anything but the right order to avoid spoilers.

The background to the novel is the hatred between two small towns in northern Sweden, Beartown and Hed, encapsulated by the rivalry between their ice hockey teams. Tribalism is universal, accentuated in the novel by the relative insignificance of the towns. I should know, I’m from Glasgow. After that it’s all about the politics and corruption (“it isn’t cheating if you don’t get caught”) of this tribalism and the individual stories of a host characters.

To be honest the length and breadth of the novel were too much for me as I’m struggling with my concentration. I read it in bits, sandwiched between easier reads. There are so many characters with stories to be told and it switches constantly between them. It’s not difficult to keep up with events, but it was difficult for me to keep interested, because with so many characters the novel is obviously slow going. It heats up in unexpected ways later on, but I found it a slog to get there. That is not to say that I couldn’t appreciate what the author has done, produced a character based novel that covers not only the characters in depth but their environment and social situation and it’s emotional, running the gamut as the characters deal with their pasts, presents and potential futures. I don’t think I have ever cried so much over a novel as I did at the end of this one, although I should point out that optimism and the future are the overriding conclusions.

In the end The Winners is a book about everything and nothing. It is a bit of a tour de force and I’m sad that my personal circumstances did not allow me to enjoy it more. I will revisit it in the future to savour its full impact.

While I haven’t read the previous books in this series for as much as I tried to make space before this one publishes, I felt like it can be read as a standalone but definitely I’m missing some parts.

The author is a master for crafting a well-drawn characters and the descriptions of the settings just take you there in the middle of it all in seconds.

This story talks so much about the human side of a community that has gone through a storm and some unpredictable events like the death of one of them.

The intrigue is set high when it comes to politicians wanting to get away with their plans of changing the town and take advantage of its new modern state.

All those decisions will, of course, change the way the community lives and reactions are everywhere, some peaceful, some not so much. And the fire gets bigger when rivalry and greediness separate families and friendships.

The narrators are so good at showing their emotional turmoil while going through those actions and the story itself.

I enjoyed their human side, whether it was bad intention or protective, and I just enjoyed this story overall.

“You get success by having extremely high integrity but absolutely zero prestige. Because integrity is about who you are, whereas prestige is only about what other people think of you.”

Two years have passed since the events that no one wants to think about. Everyone has tried to move on, but there’s something about this place that prevents it. The residents continue to grapple with life’s big questions: What is a family? What is a community? As the locals of Beartown struggle to overcome the past, great change is on the horizon.
So what are the residents of Beartown willing to sacrifice in order to protect their home?
Everything.

It is no secret that I love Fredrik Backman’s books. I’ve read every single one of them and each one is unique and special. His latest-Winners- wraps up the Beartown trilogy which, I can’t deny is one of my favourites among all his books.

To say I was overwhelmed with emotion could not possibly encapsulate the gamut of emotions I felt towards the end of the book. Knowing this was the last one, I spent nearly two weeks reading it, savouring it slowly, patiently, which is most unusual for me. The hardest was to let go, say goodbye to all the characters and yet know they will remain with me, with all their experiences.

This book, this series, is more than a story. It is comfort, it is love, it is pain, and it is the promise of sunshine and miracles – the only two things to keep the world going.

This ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Simon and Schuster UK.

The Beartown series has been one of the most addictive, gripping and engrossing series that I’ve read in a long time!

I have such a huge love for the characters of the series and their growth across the 3 books was beautifully written. Backman drops a bombshell about one of my most beloved characters on the very first page which made this last book that much more emotional and riveting.

I am such a fan of the way Backman uses the repetition of words and poignant sentences in the series to either create tension or drive a point home.

The imagery is brilliant throughout and I had such a vivid image of the devastation caused by the storm in The Winners. It was interesting that we got introduced by name to some of the characters in Hed in this book. This felt important as the previous two books only referred to those outside of Beartown by description of clothing or role.

I loved this instalment in the series and am sad to say goodby to Beartown. For me, the pacing was a little bit too slow in the first half and didn’t have the same ‘must keep reading’ feeling that I had from start to finish in the first two books.

Fredrik Backman is now counted among my favourite authors and I can’t wait to read his future releases.

“If nobody knows who you are, you can be whoever you want to be.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Disclaimer: for me this book was a 2⭐️ right up until the last 10%. Then wow did it hit me hard! I don’t think I’ve sobbed at a book as hard for a while!

The Winners begins two years after Us Against You, when it aludes to the death of one of the main characters. The story begins with Maya and Benji travelling back to Beartown for the funeral and for a good quarter of the book I really couldn’t work out who had died. Then it hit me.

The story focuses on the funeral, a huge storm that destroys Hed’s ice rink and the politicians trying to turn Beartown and Hed into one hockey team.

Massively heartwarming and equally heartbreaking, The Winners is a compelling follow-up to a story that is close to many of our hearts, and this final instalment is sure to resonate with you.

At 600 pages long, the weight of this book may feel quite daunting. But Backman's writing is so absorbing that you will easily fly through it. And every page is absolutely made the most of, with complex developments expertly weaved together to explore the emotions, worries, and hopes of so many different characters.

I would suggest that read the other books before getting to this one as there are a lot of characters, and your enjoyment of this book does depend on how much you have grown to get to know and love them over the previous two books. So if you go into this as a standalone, there will be a lot that you're missing out on, and I fear it would be far too confusing.

But fans of the series are sure to love this latest instalment and it's brilliant to return to some of my favourite fictional characters. There's a lot of love in this book, but there's also a lot of hate, as Backman takes you on an emotional journey that is sure to leave a scar.

I was super excited for a new Fredrik Backman book, and super excited to invest my soul once again into Beartown and its amazing characters.

However, with the book practically starting with foreshadowing doom, I found it difficult to really get too carried away. Additionally, the aspects that made me fall in love with Beartown and its inhabitants almost felt a little forced or unnatural at time. I wanted to be taken by surprise by the emotions I felt, to be in awe how someone’s actions have such a deep impact on situations and people (and of course myself as the reader), but this time around it just felt par for the course.

Having said that, Backman’s writing still had the ability to make my heart break or overflow, to bring me to tears or laugh with joy (mostly on a public train), and for that my fondness for Beartown could never be diminished.

The first installment, Beartown grabbed my attention with perfecr combo between amzing storytelling and emotional-stirring contents. The type of plot that looks so ordinary but has lasting aftertaste. Does this sequel also give the same effect?

In The Winner the story takes time 2.5 years depicts the last scandal in Beartown. The book starts strong, and some characters's development getting dug deeper. We will know their personal struggles, their capabilities and other side we never realized before. The author also add several new names to the mix and ofcourse it will add extra dramas in Beartown and Hed. Some snippets did great and hit the mark to stirring emotions. Although the story seem "busy" but the pace of plotline is very slow. For me personally, almost half of this book feels dragged and very repetitive. Overall, i like sport from small town premise and I really love morals story author tried to share but I still thought that Beartown will punches stronger if it become standalone.

Thank you Netgalley and Simon & Schuster UK for provided me with this gifted copy. Really appreciates and my thoughts are my own.
BN review under Alexa Ayana name.

Frederik Backman has a unique writing style, his stories are told through an apparent cacophony of characters, but who actually interlock like the pieces  of a puzzle.

Beartown centres around the success of its hockey team, but the cracks below the surface of the community are papered over with hockey flags!

I found this book a little depressing and the sport politics was quite lengthy and complex, so I didn't enjoy this book as much as his other more lighthearted titles. However, it is a very clever story and the way that the characters  were all connected is really interesting. It is a long book, but well worth persevering and the storyline gets quite intense in the last few chapters!

Just stunning!

I have not read the first two parts of the trilogy so was a bit worried I would not make sense of everything but I think it worked well as a stand alone. The stories of others are reviewed enough that I had a clear idea who what had happened before.

I absolutely love the writing style, there is such peace and calmness about it even when the topics discussed are harrowing.

There are so many characters but I didn’t get confused and I loved them all. Good and bad they were relatable.

A story of family, small towns, ambition, loneliness, sadness and hope. An absolute triumph!

In a small town where sport and loyalty to your team is everything, what happens in the aftermath of a scandal.
This is the final book in the Beartown trilogy and it’s beautifully written. So many lives are opened up to the reader and it's rare that an author can make you want to weep for victims on both sides. And yet the story is not without humour, it’s perfectly balanced.
Absolutely blown away by the amount of emotion and energy that Fredrik Backman has managed to generate within these pages.

The Winners is the last book in the Beartown trilogy and what a book it is.

I’m no hockey fan but this trilogy about the two neighbouring towns of Hed and Beartown and the residents who live within grabbed my heart. I felt their happiness and their pain and held my breath as their stories unfolded.

This final book was lonnnnnng at a hefty 700 pages, but Backman kept my attention throughout. It started slowly and then built and built until the explosive ending, where the last few chapters had me ugly crying. Simply wonderful and I’d like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

This is such a wonderful novel. The third in the 'Beartown' trilogy. I adored the characters and seeing their small victories and crushing lows. They're absolutely perfect. Backman has a way of showing people in all their messy glory. I loved the insights into the characters as they deal with the events from the previous 2 years.
Backman has a wonderful way of describing relationships; couples, friends and especially those feelings we all have as parents. I felt my heart ache at times with the way he explains those conflicted emotions like poetry.
The two towns of Beartown and Hed almost become characters themselves and I enjoyed how the tension between them developed in this novel.
Although this was a fascinating insight to the various inhabitants of the two towns, I found this novel was a bit long and I genuinely think a lot of it could have been cut out just to help the narrative flow a bit faster. This would have been a 5 star book if it hadn't felt so repetitive.
Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc in return for an honest review.

Sorry. I made the mistake of not checking if the book is the first book or a sequel. So, I cannot review it properly. Won't happen again!

I didnt hugely enjoy this. It just wasn’t my kind of book really. I found it too difficult to get into and that just made it drag and feel like it went on forever. It’s a shame as I really wanted to like it!

This is the third Beartown book and no, I wouldn't recommend you jump right in. It's well worth taking the time to start at the beginning. (Go. Now. Go to Beartown and start at page 1.)

Of course this book is quite an investment of time in itself - it's a long finish to this lovely series about a community of two towns obsessed with hockey, and at times you will wonder why you're flitting from character perspective to character perspective, why you can't just zoom along to the end. But the truth is the story is always building to a climax and all of those characters have purpose. (Whether you can argue the same for the political sub-plots I'm not sure, though the interlinked nature of those for some reason reminded me of complex shenanigans in Catch 22, though I could be misremembering as I read that 25 years ago...).

Another truth is that you're either going to get on with Backman's writing style in this series, or he's going to start winding you up more than usual with The Winners. There is more foreboding in this single book than in, well, pretty much any other book I've ever read. Lots of (and these examples are made up), "If only they'd known that was the last time they'd laugh together," and "They sang all night and later they would look back on it fondly, knowing now what they could not know then".

Yep, something big is on its way and Backman will NOT let it drop, he will NOT let you forget about it. He wants you tasting that foreboding and dreading what's to come.

The absolute WORST thing about all of this is that you think "Well if he's going to manipulate me like this then I refuse to be manipulated. I simply won't be sad when all the foreboding comes to pass."

The worst thing is that you're wrong.

I got to the end of this book. This beautifully told book with the characters who are each realised so well. I got to the end and I sobbed like a baby. I had to explain to my kids why mummy was crying so much. And my eyes were wrecked the next day. Thanks a lot, Backman.

Who knew crying over a hockey town was a thing? But it's not just a hockey town, is it? It's people dealing with the same struggles we deal with all the world over, thrown into focus through hockey.

It's beautiful. But yes, it's also quite long and drawn out (and with much foreboding).