Title: Bear Town

Author: Fredrik Backman

People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest,it is slowly losing ground to the ever-encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the workingmen who founded this town. And that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semifinals, and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage. boys.

A victory would send star player Kevin on to a brilliant professional future In the NHL. It would mean everything to Amat, a scrawny fifteen-year-old treated like an outcast everywhere but on the ice. And it would justify the choice that Peter, the team’s general manager, and his wife, Kira, made to return to his hometown and raise their children in this beautiful but isolated place.

Being responsible for the hopes of an entire town is a heavy burden, and the semifinal match is the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Hers is a story no one wants to believe, since doing so would mean the end of the dream. Accusations are made, and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected.