This, the sequel to Beartown, takes up the story soon after the climactic end of its predecessor. The survivors, mostly damaged, take up their fractured lives and try to regain normality.
That seems futile for the Andersson family, as each member looks to their own escape. For father, Peter, it is to save the ice hockey team from extinction; for mother, Kira, it is immersion in her career; for daughter, Maya, it is her music; and for young Leo it is a drift into moodiness and vandalism.
New characters join the cast: duplicitous local politician, Richard Theo; leader of the local hooligan ’Pack’, Teemu Rinnius; and new A team coach, Elizabeth Zackell, unconventionally female, if not feminine. Theo finds a new team sponsor but sows discord; Zackell ruffles feathers and invites prejudice; Rinnius glowers in the shadows, self-appointed guardian of the team’s identity. Peter Andersson flounders, trying to square their irreconcilable demands.
The youth team players, Benji, Bobo, and Amat, graduate to the A team, and prepare for season defining games against deadly local rivals, the team from Hed.
Love and loyalties are tested; trusts are betrayed; rivalry descends into hatred and violence, stoked for political purposes; tolerance is tested, and insecurity is rife, as the war for control of the club’s soul is fought alongside more personal battles.
As in Beartown, the
present tense narration builds tension, and the Scandi-forest atmosphere and
memorable characters make the story compulsive reading.
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