This is what you call top tier fiction. Fredrik Backman is a legend. What a book. The story of Bearyown and its residents is one that will stay with me for all my life.

I love Backmanns style of writing and the warmth he brings to his stories. I am forever recommending his books. I have loved all 3 of the beartown books, I couldn't possibly choose a favourite. I love that backman writes in a way that really allows us to immerse ourselves I'm this wonderful town.
He can do no wrong in my eyes.
Wonderful book.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read and review this ARC.
Fredrik Backman is one of my all time favorite authors, his books having changed my life. Every time I hear that somebody hasn't read in quite some time I instantly recommend them one of his books.

I was initially surprised when I found out that the third book in the Beartown series was coming out, but was overjoyed that I could reconnect with some of the most beloved characters such as: Peter, Benji, Maya, Anna, Amat and Ramona. Whatever I had expected, however, did not happen.

A true masterpiece, even from the first few pages, this book shocks you with an ominous opening that is bound to rip up your heart. As it is a book about loss and grief, but also the darkness of power I sensed that Backman would explore how people are capable of great evil but also of even greater good. The characters that he has created within this series are amongst some of the most vivid and well written that I have ver read about and their stories will impress any reader to the verge of tears.

Even though most of the themes discussed in this book are pretty heartbreaking and said this is also a homage to the eternal flame of forgiveness, love and family. We can see these things reflected in many character dynamics within the book, maybe most obviously in Peter and Kira who struggle defining themselves as individuals but also as the parents of their daughter. Most of the characters in this book have made mistakes and we get to see them struggle with their demons but we see it all unfold through a very specific lens since some of the main themes in this book are redemption and community support.

Overall, "The Winners" is a powerful book that discusses important topics. It will stay with the readers long after they have finished reading and although tears might be shed, readers will still laugh and in the very end feel inspired, because there is yet hope for humanity.

This was an incredible ending to this stunning series. I once again loved the setting of the book. Taking a closer look at each of the characters and getting to catch up with them all, I loved the sense of community.

In a forest in Sweden two towns, Beartown & Hed, are at war. Their world revolves around ice hockey & the rivalry between the teams & the supporters seeps into everything. On first glance, unless you are a huge ice hockey fan, this might seem to be a bit - boring ? However this long book is very far from that. This is the third in a trilogy & I arrived late to the party but I absolutely loved this book. The wide variety of characters & the setting totally drew me in. I was so sorry to say goodbye to those people I had grown to know & love. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this super book.

This is a four star review for the entire trilogy! I absolutely loooved this story!

In this trilogy we meet the residents of Beartown, a fierce Ice hockey community. In book 1 it leads up to a terrible evident that changes the lives of everyone. That event is still threaded through all three books and we continue to see the fallout and devastation caused.

Backman writes beautifully, each book just builds up this anxiety. As the reader you know something is about to happen and you just want to keep reading. He just knows how to grab the reader and fully immerse them into his writing. I fell in love with all the characters and became so invested in them.

This last book was just under 700 pages but worth it. The ending of this trilogy was emotional and heartbreaking.

What a trilogy! I was wondered as it’s a massive book but so happy I read it on kindle. Such an emotional read

Fredrik Backman has completed this series with such a sad story throughout but ultimately it is heartwarming to see how people come through for each and come together. But a deeper look at what drives them and what drives people apart. Communities, families and friendships are tested throughout, maybe more so in this third instalment but the writing style is so gripping that you are right there and unable to put the book down.
There are definitely times when the the story feels bleak and so maybe feels like it is dragging but the whole package makes it worth while.
The ripple effects that go through these communities with each seemingly small decision of the individuals and the impact that has on everyone makes you want to pray for everyone in Beartown...and Hed.

Such a brilliant book, well written and fantastic characters.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

It's definitely a good sign when I'm both desperate to finish a book so I know how it ends and also don't want it to end because then one of my favourite trilogies of all time will be over. The Winners, the third in the series of novels set in Beartown, is both beautiful and devastating. I spent the last half an hour reading through tears. Backman managed to wrap up the series perfectly and break my heart at the same time. I know this is our last visit to Beartown but I am gutted that it is over.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy.

I absolutely loved this one. It’s the first that I’ve read of Fredrik Backman and I loved his writing style, I will absolutely have to go back and read the others in this series. Many different stories were told all intertwining all making you think and feel things and in the end I loved almost all of the people from Beartown and Hed.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

How do you finish a series which has captured hearts and minds…souls..I read Beartown for the first time in January and was immediately enraptured by this unique style of writing, by an immense story and ultimately by the characters. To inhabit a space with Benji, Ramola and the many unique personalities that populate this ice world has been a dream this year.

It’s clear that Backman has put his heart and soul into writing an ending. From the very first page with the wildest of storms swirling round Beartown the story was building to its climax. This was a storm which introduced new characters, sharpened the battle lines between Beartown and Hed as a stadium is battered by the weather, and in which someone dies. It brings characters back to the town who have strayed far away and in true Backman style it intimates what is to come.

This is the ultimate in finales. I felt my emotions swinging around as wildly as the weather wondering what would happen to my favourite characters. I fell in love again with Benji and his family and became a fan of a hockey team again..and part of the community. It was very clear to me in the early chapters what was going to happen but that did not detract from the experience, rather it was like following a footpath in the snow which you are pretty sure is leading you home. I laughed, cried and was totally immersed in the magic of this community..
Was this perfect, no..but it was an ending which delivered everything that this story needed. Fabulous.

With many thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for my digital copy.

So, I made the mistake of going into this book without realizing it's part of a trilogy. That being said, I quickly picked up the back story and fell for the characters.

Fredrik Backman is the master of writing a sentence packed with so much meaning, emotion, and wisdom that it will stay with you for a long time after you finish the book.

His characters are complex, the plot will hook you, his descriptions are borderline poetry, and the use of multiple points of view/narrators lets you see—and feel—this amazing story.

I've already ordered more books by this author!

Brilliant—The full FIVE stars from me.

Thank you to #netgalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve just finished and I can’t breathe. Probably the most beautiful series of books I’ve ever read, and will ever read.

Wow! What an amazing book!!
Would love to read more from the author.
Thankyou netgalley for the Arc!

It has been two years since the events of ‘Us Against You’ and we jump right back into the lives of the residents of Beartown and Hed as a storm devastates both towns.

I am heartbroken...
It is rare for books to effect me so deeply, but Backman’s Beartown trilogy, and his stand-alone ‘A Man Called Ove’ just broke me. I will re-read these four books over and over again throughout my life. I will remember certain lines or passages as if they were lyrics from my favourite song. I will purchase them in hard copy, e-book and audiobook format so that I always have them to hand.

Backman and his brilliant translator Niel Smith have really created a masterpiece with this trilogy. Perfection!

Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster UK for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

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?

I liked Beartown eventually and I thought Us Against You was ok..but hear me out...I loved The Winners! It is surely a rarity that the third book in a series is as strong if not stronger than the previous but for me this was exactly what I found. It wasn't even as if I just knew the characters more so found a greater affinity with them as my favourites in this book were new additions to the story in the form of almost invisible Matteo and hardworking married couple Johnny and Hannah. This time around my visit to Beartown was very atmospheric as the character's lives were as stormy as the weather conditions. For such a chunky book I flew through the pages like the proverbial wind especially as wisps of what was to come indicated that dark times were ahead. The Beartown trilogy is the only of Backman's books I have read so I am not sure if this is a signature touch but I have certainly never read such quotable books. Throughout the stories he includes such relatable and inspirational quotes that not only fit the scene perfectly but also make you look at the way you live your own life. I have never seen this done before these books and I personally love it. The Winners is a tour de force of a novel with a strong ensemble of characters you can't help but root for.

Fredrik Backman shows he is a master of the written word and you immediately feel as if you know his characters; they are what makes this book. This novel is ostensibly about an ice hockey team but it is so much more than that. A veritable hoard of themes are explored here including class, love, sacrifice, forgiveness, family, and racism to name only a few and all are touched upon with exquisiteness and insight. Some books prompt you to remember why reading novels is important and this is one such novel.

This review was written voluntarily and my rating was in no way influenced by the fact that I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel from Simon & Schuster via NetGalley.

Fredrik Backman is incapable of writing a bad book! This is another totally perfect novel about Beartown. The issues he raises are worldwide in exposing our human tribal nature and making the reader think deeply about their own current issues whether this be family, neighbour or football team, we are all guilty in some degree to these deep seated human feelings. The characters are all like any one of us, slightly flawed and slightly amazing. However, the way in which this author deals with all of these emotions is worthy of praise as an author, a philosopher and a psychologist. I personally found this to be the easiest and the hardest novel to read EVER, I found myself re-reading many passages as they meant so much to me and I needed to really absorb completely the meaning and intent. I will be getting all of Mr Backman’s novels in hard copy as I want to honour and re-read all of them….often.
Thank you Netgalley, publisher and especially Mr Fredrick Backman for the honour of reading this in exchange for an honest review.

The Winners is the third novel in the Beartown series by Swedish blogger, columnist and author, Fredrik Backman. It is translated from Swedish by Neil Smith. It begins with a wild storm that lashes the rival towns of Beartown and Hed: Ana steps in for her drunken father to escort Hed midwife, Hannah to a woman in labour stranded in the forest by a fallen tree; a baby boy is born.

Peter Andersson, mulling over the emptiness of his life without hockey, waits in vain for his wife Kira to come home from work; angry and disaffected, fourteen-year-old Matteo roams the street; Fatima is urged by the caretaker to abandon her cleaning and go home; and Tails only concern is to save the twelve enormous green Bears flags with which he has adorned the ice rink. And someone dies.

In Hed, the ice rink collapses; fireman Johnny looks after his children while his wife attends an emergency birth; Kira avoids going home, spending the night in her dark office; elsewhere, Maya believes she has come to terms with what many in Beartown term “the scandal”, until she almost stabs an innocent in a poorly lit park; for two years, Benji has been living a non-hockey, nomadic life, drunk and free and far from Beartown; and a call from family summons each of them home.

In the aftermath: Amat finally breaks his self-imposed exile and starts running again; Matteo’s parents bring home the remains of his sister; two funerals are arranged and one is well-attended; decisions are made by “interested parties” about road-clearing priorities that clearly involve political machinations; a two-year-long truce ends; and a girl from Hed falls in love with a hockey coach from Beartown.

As well, a journalist turns up looking for evidence of corruption, and with the Beartown Hockey Club in his sights, manipulating an unsuspecting source with benign queries; a lawyer is surprised to be offered the newly-vacated place on the Beartown Hockey Club management committee; a factory accident has tragic consequences.

The Beartown coach and the former manager check out a potential new player; a guitar-playing teen falls for a hockey player; and a beloved dog is killed. Despite lots of underhandedness, heightened rivalry and manipulation, there is also new love and friendship and mentoring, sibling affection and kindness.

But from the very start, Backman continually reminds the reader that things will not end well for a certain character. And with every small thing that happens, the need for vengeance in that angry young teen grows, until he’s finally angry enough to steal a gun. And use it.

The story of the storm, the aftermath and the events of the two years preceding are told in straight narrative and flashbacks, from numerous perspectives, including that of a Hed family. He offers a detailed description of “the way everything and everyone is tied to everything and everyone else by invisible hooks and threads of relationships and loyalties and debts.” Sometimes Backman just uses a tiny vignette to great emotional effect: tissues will be needed.

The best of the gems of wisdom and insight with which Backman endows his characters could easily fill a close-typed page, so only a few are shared here: “fear turns some people into heroes but most of us only reveal our worst sides when we’re caught in its shadow” and “children open floodgates inside us, upward as well as down. You’ve never felt so happy, and never felt so scared” and “If no one knows who you are, you can be whoever you want.” Another moving, thought-provoking and uplifting read from Fredrik Backman.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Simon & Schuster UK.