Genre Fiction
![Fredrik Backman - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_B00KV5TN4I.jpg)
Us Against You: A Novel
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove and Beartown returns with an unforgettable novel "about people-about strength and tribal loyalty and what we unwittingly do when trying to show our boys how to be men" (Jojo Moyes).
Have you ever seen a town fall? Ours did.
Have you ever seen a town rise? Ours did that, too.
A small community tucked deep in the forest, Beartown is home to tough, hardworking people who don't expect life to be easy or fair. No matter how difficult times get, they've always been able to take pride in their local ice hockey team. So 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 new coach and a chance at a comeback.
Soon a team starts to take shape around Amat, the fastest player you'll ever see; Benji, the intense lone wolf; always dutiful and eager-to-please Bobo; and Vidar, a born-to-be-bad troublemaker. But bringing this team together proves to be a challenge as old bonds are broken, new ones are formed, and the town's enmity with Hed grows more and more acute.
As the big game approaches, the not-so-innocent pranks and incidents between the communities pile up and their mutual contempt intensifies. By the time the last goal is scored, a resident of Beartown will be dead, and the people of both towns will be forced to wonder if, after everything, the game they love can ever return to something as simple and innocent as a field of ice, two nets, and two teams. Us against you.
Here is a declaration of love for all the big and small, bright and dark stories that give form and color to our communities. With immense compassion and insight, Fredrik Backman-"the Dickens of our age" (Green Valley News)-reveals how loyalty, friendship, and kindness can carry a town through its most challenging days.Age Range: Adult
Have you ever seen a town fall? Ours did.
Have you ever seen a town rise? Ours did that, too.
A small community tucked deep in the forest, Beartown is home to tough, hardworking people who don't expect life to be easy or fair. No matter how difficult times get, they've always been able to take pride in their local ice hockey team. So 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 new coach and a chance at a comeback.
Soon a team starts to take shape around Amat, the fastest player you'll ever see; Benji, the intense lone wolf; always dutiful and eager-to-please Bobo; and Vidar, a born-to-be-bad troublemaker. But bringing this team together proves to be a challenge as old bonds are broken, new ones are formed, and the town's enmity with Hed grows more and more acute.
As the big game approaches, the not-so-innocent pranks and incidents between the communities pile up and their mutual contempt intensifies. By the time the last goal is scored, a resident of Beartown will be dead, and the people of both towns will be forced to wonder if, after everything, the game they love can ever return to something as simple and innocent as a field of ice, two nets, and two teams. Us against you.
Here is a declaration of love for all the big and small, bright and dark stories that give form and color to our communities. With immense compassion and insight, Fredrik Backman-"the Dickens of our age" (Green Valley News)-reveals how loyalty, friendship, and kindness can carry a town through its most challenging days.Age Range: Adult
Editorial Reviews
PRAISE FOR US AGAINST YOU
"What you get in a Fredrik Backman work is wonderful writing and brilliant insights into things that truly matter-right vs. wrong, fear vs. courage, love vs. hate, the importance and limits of friendship and loyalty, and more. Fredrik Backman is one of the world's best and most interesting novelists. He is a giant among the world's great novelists-and this literary giant is still growing." ― Washington Times
"[Backman] creates an astute emotional world much bigger than a small Swedish town...A novel you can sink into." ― Chicago Tribune
"Deftly explores recovery and rebirth." ― US Weekly
"If Alexander McCall Smith's and Maeve Binchy's novels had a love child, the result would be the work of Swedish writer Fredrik Backman...With his wry acceptance of foible and failure, Backman combines a singular style with a large and compassionate perspective for his characters...[His] novels have wide appeal, and for good reason. Us Against You takes a lyrical look at how a community heals, how families recover and how individuals grow." ― The Washington Post
"Backman (A Man Called Ove) returns to the hockey-obsessed village of his previous novel Beartown to chronicle the passion, violence, resilience, and humanity of the people who live there in this engrossing tale of small-town Swedish life... Backman's excellent novel has an atmosphere of both Scandinavian folktale and Greek tragedy. Darkness and grit exist alongside tenderness and levity, creating a blunt realism that brings the setting's small-town atmosphere to vivid life." ― Publishers Weekly
"Evident in all [Backman] novels is an apparent ability to state a truth about humanity with breathtaking elegance." ― Kirkus
"What you get in a Fredrik Backman work is wonderful writing and brilliant insights into things that truly matter-right vs. wrong, fear vs. courage, love vs. hate, the importance and limits of friendship and loyalty, and more. Fredrik Backman is one of the world's best and most interesting novelists. He is a giant among the world's great novelists-and this literary giant is still growing." ― Washington Times
"[Backman] creates an astute emotional world much bigger than a small Swedish town...A novel you can sink into." ― Chicago Tribune
"Deftly explores recovery and rebirth." ― US Weekly
"If Alexander McCall Smith's and Maeve Binchy's novels had a love child, the result would be the work of Swedish writer Fredrik Backman...With his wry acceptance of foible and failure, Backman combines a singular style with a large and compassionate perspective for his characters...[His] novels have wide appeal, and for good reason. Us Against You takes a lyrical look at how a community heals, how families recover and how individuals grow." ― The Washington Post
"Backman (A Man Called Ove) returns to the hockey-obsessed village of his previous novel Beartown to chronicle the passion, violence, resilience, and humanity of the people who live there in this engrossing tale of small-town Swedish life... Backman's excellent novel has an atmosphere of both Scandinavian folktale and Greek tragedy. Darkness and grit exist alongside tenderness and levity, creating a blunt realism that brings the setting's small-town atmosphere to vivid life." ― Publishers Weekly
"Evident in all [Backman] novels is an apparent ability to state a truth about humanity with breathtaking elegance." ― Kirkus
Readers Top Reviews
John-On-WyeCaroline
Picked up Beartown NOT REALISING ICE HOCKEY was the central hook - can’t stand ‘sport’ in films, novels, whatever - and so please I didn’t... because Beartown moved, enthralled, saddened, moved, elated.. & so ordered Us vs You immediately on finishing and.. OMG!! This guy knows how to push all the emotional buttons: with force, clarity, subtlety and such pure humanity.. could hardly finish through the sobs, tears, & choking up: will stay with me for a long long time
Sargy
I loved the Beartown book, so was confident that I would enjoy this too. Once again its so compelling and I was immediately drawn into Beartown and Backman really draws you in to the community. Once more, I felt that I lived and had grown up in this town. The writing is beautiful and there is so much heart and emotion. It really is special. This book focused less on the hockey and more on the people. I think 'Beartown' had a greater balance and ultimately a more believable story. I felt that the author wanted to develop the stories of the people of Beartown but may have been better served doing a few more books as this one has such a lot going on and it felt a bit busy at times. The writing is incredible and teh charcaters are brilliant. I can really pay the book and the author no greater compliment than to say that despite being based in the North of England that 'WE ARE THE BEARS FROM BEARTOWN
Alyssia Cooke
I suspect my main issue with this book is that it isn't Beartown. Beartown won a special place in my heart and little if anything was ever going to be able to rival it for my affections. Us Against You makes a reasonable attempt, but falls just that little bit short of the target set by its predecessor. This is undoubtedly beautifully written and stunningly translated, but it didn't quite hold me in the same way that Beartown did. It can't be the characters, for although all of the previous favourites return for this sequel there are some new characters that take your breath away. Aspects of the last book that were touched on are developed and expanded, with the black jackets being of particular importance, but by no means are they the only ones. As with his previous novel however, Backman touches on so many issues that are hidden within a commmunity; both the large and the small, the good and the bad. He has a way with words and sometimes his words really do just take your breath away. Sometimes I found myself re-reading a paragraph for exactly that reason. And at the finale, he knows how to use those same words to break your heart into a thousand pieces. Backman's writing makes most other authors look clumsy in comparison and his characterisations can make you weep. But it still didn't quite hit the pinacle of Beartown and there's possibly a couple of reasons for that. Firstly, the tone is far less innocent I suppose. Whereas Beartown is all surrounded by individuals actions and the way they can spiral a situation out of control, Us Against You is just as heavily based on one mans ability to manipulate a series of situations and a variety of people. All of the events were far more calculated and whilst that made for a good read, it didn't make for the spell-binding read that Beartown was. Beartown didn't need a single individual's meddling fingers to keep the events spiralling... this did, and that detracted from the tone of the novel quite a bit for me. I also found the constant active foretelling of something dark on the horizon to be somewhat tedious after a while, particularly when everything is so slowly paced. Whereas with Beartown you get build up and repurcussions in almost equal proportion with the events spiralling out of control somewhere in the middle, here it is nearly all build up. It's well written build up and it showcases the characters beautifully, but it's missing something. And when I hit the finale, I won't deny that I cried, but somehow I can't help but feel that the book wasn't quite balanced as perfectly as Beartown. But at the same time, this still reflects some of the greatest lights within humanity at the same time as it shines a glow on some of the darkest. It is still beautifully written with passages that will haunt me for long to come. It is still a novel about humanity; about loss and...
Eva
Us Against You is sometimes moving and quite heartbreaking. At times it managed to leave a smile on my face, other times I had a massive lump in my throat. The story is always realistic, its characters believable while constantly showing the worst and the best side of mankind, making it incredibly thought-provoking and also hopeful. Fredrik Backman is a wonderful storyteller. It almost feels as if you’re sitting in a pub with someone who’s telling you the story of Beartown and I once again became utterly invested in the lives of these characters, hurting with them and rooting for them. They wormed their way into my heart from the start and I won’t be forgetting any of them in a hurry. Beautifully written and incredibly captivating, Us Against You is as much of a gem as Beartown/The Scandal is and it has caused another massive book hangover. I’m quietly hoping for a third instalment in this series. There are more stories to tell, I’m sure, but quite frankly, I’d take any excuse to return to Beartown.
Occasional CriticJen
Beartown was a challenge to get through, even though I am a voracious reader and an avid hockey fan, but that book had enough redeeming qualities to motivate me to pick up "Us Against You." Once or twice in the 100 or so books I read annually will I just stop at 50 or 75 pages and give up due to absurd plots or bad writing. I stopped in this one at 75, 150, 250 ... then finally finished it. I realized I despise both towns of Beartown and Hed and dislike most of the people in both towns. Just a bunch of deranged people.. Well, I guess you have to root for Maya and Amat, but the author gave us plenty of reasons to dislike formerly likable Benji and Ana by the end. Peter and Kira though ... OMG ... what horrible pathetic excuses for parents. If I could I'd find them and drive over and slap the snot out of them. Let's see ... your daughter is raped, the mother can make more money than they need in the city she actually works, an hour away, the father is a disaster at his Hockey Club GM job and hates it, their 12-year-old confused son needs his sorry butt moved, virtually everyone in both towns hates them ... and they stay living there? WTF x 1,000!!! And if never occurs to Maya, or Ana, or Benji, or anyone else to change their freakin' cell phone number where they get constant despicable messages and texts from everyone in both towns? Beyond absurd. Sigh. And the gang ... please ... they are not noble by any means. They should all be rotting in prison. Add to this the absurd plot twists -- they only thing I can compare that to was "Girl on a Train" which I read because I lost a bet. Ridiculous. And what's with all the foreshadowing, that half the time was genuine foreshadowing and half the time was just misdirection. That got really tiring. As did the endless, overwrought emotional introspection by character after character, and the writer's love for writing really stupid thoughts, actions and deeds then trying to say they are normal and expected as if this would trip us up. And please ... I have never read (and this goes for Beartown as well) so many people pounding their fists into walls, trees, doors, anything to bloody them, and screaming, and trying to count how many people vomited would be like trying to establish a death count in a John Wick movie. This was more like "The book that got hit by a train." It was awful. My nomination for the worst book of 2019.
Short Excerpt Teaser
Chapter 1: It's Going to Be Someone's Fault 1 It's Going to Be Someone's Fault
Have you ever seen a town fall? Ours did. We'll end up saying that violence came to Beartown this summer, but that will be a lie; the violence was already here. Because sometimes hating one another is so easy that it seems incomprehensible that we ever do anything else.
We're a small community in the forest; people say that no roads lead here, just past. The economy coughs every time it takes a deep breath; the factory cuts its workforce each year like a child that thinks no one will notice the cake in the fridge getting smaller if you take a little bit from each side. If you lay a current map of the town over an old one, the main shopping street and the little strip known as "the center" seem to shrink like bacon in a hot pan. We have an ice rink but not much else. But on the other hand, as people usually say here: What the hell else do you need?
People driving through say that Beartown doesn't live for anything but hockey, and some days they may be right. Sometimes people have to be allowed to have something to live for in order to survive everything else. We're not mad, we're not greedy; say what you like about Beartown, but the people here are tough and hardworking. So we built a hockey team that was like us, that we could be proud of, because we weren't like you. When people from the big cities thought something seemed too hard, we just grinned and said, "It's supposed to be hard." Growing up here wasn't easy; that's why we did it, not you. We stood tall, no matter the weather. But then something happened, and we fell.
There's a story about us before this one, and we're always going to carry the guilt of that. Sometimes good people do terrible things in the belief that they're trying to protect what they love. A boy, the star of the hockey team, raped a girl. And we lost our way. A community is the sum of its choices, and when two of our children said different things, we believed him. Because that was easier, because if the girl was lying our lives could carry on as usual. When we found out the truth, we fell apart, taking the town with us. It's easy to say that we should have done everything differently, but perhaps you wouldn't have acted differently, either. If you'd been afraid, if you'd been forced to pick a side, if you'd known what you had to sacrifice. Perhaps you wouldn't be as brave as you think. Perhaps you're not as different from us as you hope.
This is the story of what happened afterward, from one summer to the following winter. It is about Beartown and the neighboring town of Hed, and how the rivalry between two hockey teams can grow into a mad struggle for money and power and survival. It is a story about hockey rinks and all the hearts that beat around them, about people and sports and how they sometimes take turns carrying each other. About us, people who dream and fight. Some of us will fall in love, others will be crushed; we'll have good days and some very bad days. This town will rejoice, but it will also start to burn. There's going to be a terrible bang.
Some girls will make us proud; some boys will make us great. Young men dressed in different colors will fight to the death in a dark forest. A car will drive too fast through the night. We will say that it was a traffic accident, but accidents happen by chance, and we will know that we could have prevented this one. This one will be someone's fault.
People we love will die. We will bury our children beneath our most beautiful trees.
Have you ever seen a town fall? Ours did. We'll end up saying that violence came to Beartown this summer, but that will be a lie; the violence was already here. Because sometimes hating one another is so easy that it seems incomprehensible that we ever do anything else.
We're a small community in the forest; people say that no roads lead here, just past. The economy coughs every time it takes a deep breath; the factory cuts its workforce each year like a child that thinks no one will notice the cake in the fridge getting smaller if you take a little bit from each side. If you lay a current map of the town over an old one, the main shopping street and the little strip known as "the center" seem to shrink like bacon in a hot pan. We have an ice rink but not much else. But on the other hand, as people usually say here: What the hell else do you need?
People driving through say that Beartown doesn't live for anything but hockey, and some days they may be right. Sometimes people have to be allowed to have something to live for in order to survive everything else. We're not mad, we're not greedy; say what you like about Beartown, but the people here are tough and hardworking. So we built a hockey team that was like us, that we could be proud of, because we weren't like you. When people from the big cities thought something seemed too hard, we just grinned and said, "It's supposed to be hard." Growing up here wasn't easy; that's why we did it, not you. We stood tall, no matter the weather. But then something happened, and we fell.
There's a story about us before this one, and we're always going to carry the guilt of that. Sometimes good people do terrible things in the belief that they're trying to protect what they love. A boy, the star of the hockey team, raped a girl. And we lost our way. A community is the sum of its choices, and when two of our children said different things, we believed him. Because that was easier, because if the girl was lying our lives could carry on as usual. When we found out the truth, we fell apart, taking the town with us. It's easy to say that we should have done everything differently, but perhaps you wouldn't have acted differently, either. If you'd been afraid, if you'd been forced to pick a side, if you'd known what you had to sacrifice. Perhaps you wouldn't be as brave as you think. Perhaps you're not as different from us as you hope.
This is the story of what happened afterward, from one summer to the following winter. It is about Beartown and the neighboring town of Hed, and how the rivalry between two hockey teams can grow into a mad struggle for money and power and survival. It is a story about hockey rinks and all the hearts that beat around them, about people and sports and how they sometimes take turns carrying each other. About us, people who dream and fight. Some of us will fall in love, others will be crushed; we'll have good days and some very bad days. This town will rejoice, but it will also start to burn. There's going to be a terrible bang.
Some girls will make us proud; some boys will make us great. Young men dressed in different colors will fight to the death in a dark forest. A car will drive too fast through the night. We will say that it was a traffic accident, but accidents happen by chance, and we will know that we could have prevented this one. This one will be someone's fault.
People we love will die. We will bury our children beneath our most beautiful trees.
