Fredrik Backman

"Beartown is home to tough, hardworking people who don't expect life to be easy or fair ... It's a cruel blow when they hear that Beartown ice hockey might soon be disbanded. 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. As the tension mounts between the two adversaries, a newcomer arrives who gives Beartown hockey a surprising...

As a big hockey match approaches, the not-so-innocent pranks between the communities of Beartown and Hed pile up, leading to the death of a local resident. The people of both towns are forced to wonder if the game they love can ever return to something simple and honest.

"Holiday novella about a man who sacrificed his family in the single-minded pursuit of success and the courageous little girl fighting for her life who crosses his path. It all begins with a father telling a story to his son on Christmas Eve. But this isn't your typical Christmas story. The father admits to his son that he's taken a life but he won't say whose--not yet. One week earlier, in a hospital late at night, the man met a five-year-old girl...