Book:The Scandal(a.k.a Beartown)
Author:Fredrik Backman
Translator: Neil Smith
Paperback:432 Pages
Published: August 10th 2017
Publisher:Michael Joseph
Rating: 3.8/5
‘Late one evening towards the end of March, a teenager picked up a double-barrelled shotgun, walked into the forest, put the gun to someone else’s forehead and pulled the trigger. This is the story of how we got there.’
The Scandal is a story of Beartown where the hockey means life to its people.This hockey season, Kevin Erdahl is a big hope. His team’s win can bring back life to the town. But, what would happen when this seventeen-year-old player would shatter everyone’s hopes?
The Scandal is not a sports novel. It is a story of every small town. It is a story of how society behaves when their godly figure commits a wrong. It is a story of how the obscure has always been crushed by the infamous. It is the best example of how people tend to take justice into their hands solely because the reality is way beyond their imagination and belief. Have you ever trusted someone for so long, that now when they break your trust, you prefer to close your eyes than addressing the pain? “What an uncomfortable, terrible source of shame it is for the world that the victim is so often the one left with the most empathy for others.”
The characters built- up is really strong but it has been stretched up to first hundred pages which got annoying for me, after some time. The author has also covered the small tits and bits we face at different stages of life. I really liked the way he has described the teenage friendship between Ana and Maya, “You never have the sort of friends you have when you’re fifteen ever again. Even if you keep them for the rest of your life, it’s never the same as it was then.” The author hasn’t failed to catch up with the strong team spirit of the “Bears of Beartown” alongside the depressing reality which Peter and his family has to go through.
It is not just another novel. If you really wish read a fresh story and something which is very simple yet very deep, it is this book.
Favorite Quotes:
“Being a parent makes you feel like a blanket that’s always too small. No matter how hard you try to cover everyone,”
“Words are small things. No one means any harm by them, they keep saying that.
.
.
.
Words are not small things.”
About the Author:
Fredrik Backman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (soon to be a major motion picture starring Tom Hanks), My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, Britt-Marie Was Here, Beartown, Us Against You, as well as two novellas, And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer and The Deal of a Lifetime. His books are published in more than forty countries. He lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with his wife and two children.
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