Nothing like A Man Called Ove.
Oh dear, I was so looking forward to a new title by Fredrik Backman. I'd loved A Man Called Ove and was hoping for something along similar lines. Alas, I have no interest in sport, particularly ice hockey and I found the style in which the book is written rather patronising - for example: "And what is a Club?" (loc 4619) and: "What is a home?" (loc 4682).
The story takes place in an isolated community in a forested area of Sweden. The community's proudest moments have come from the up-coming junior hockey squad and everything revolves around them winning the junior final and progressing to the main tournament the following year. That's about all that happens for the first half of the book.
In the second half though, an event occurs, that turns the village on its head; there are recriminations and denials, and 'hockey' becomes the cause and the defense.
When writing reviews I always check back over the highlights that I've noted in my Kindle, a particularly good book inevitably has a good number of highlights. The number of highlights for this book is sadly telling. I found the hockey theme uninspiring and most of the characters were quite unpleasant.
It gets amazing reviews on Amazon, so I'm obviously alone in my opinion, but personally, I would only recommend it to people who live in ice hockey communities.
1