Fredrik Backman.Linnéa Jonasson Bernholm/Appendix fotografi
The man behind A Man Called Ove is back with his latest novel. In Us Against You (Simon & Schuster), Fredrik Backman returns to the world of Beartown. In the aftermath of that tale, the titular town’s hockey team is on the verge of disbanding, much to the delight of the former players who now play their game in a rival town. As a head-to-head matchup looms and the animosity between towns turns fatal for one resident, Beartown will have to face the intertwined nature of sports and tragedy in their community. Here, the Swedish author shares the books that have made the most impact throughout his own life.
What did you read as a kid?
I’ve come to understand that people outside of Sweden might know Astrid Lindgren mostly for Pippi Longstocking, but I really hold The Brothers Lionheart as the best book I’ve ever read. I still read it at least once a year. Two brothers die and wake up in an ancient land of campfires and fairy tales where they fight an evil king and a terrible dragon. It’s the perfect adventure, but it’s also a marvellous story for any adult who wants to discuss death with a child. My mom read it to me when I was 6, when I lost my grandfather. I gave it to my grandmother right afterward. When she passed away a couple of years ago, I read it to my son.
What did you read in grade school?
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. I truly believe reading this was the exact moment it occurred to me that authors are allowed to be … crazy. I’d never laughed so much, and I thought: “Wow. Books can be THIS?” It blew all the doors open in my head and it fundamentally changed my path as a writer.
What did you read in university?
A friend of mine, and one of my favourite people, ended his life when I was 20. It destroyed me. I didn’t know what to do with all my emotions at the time and fearing they would absolutely consume me, I went to Thailand for three months planning just to drink myself to sleep every night. I found Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose at a “leave one, take one” shelf at a rundown beach hotel on an island and, for a day or two there, it kept me sober. It absolutely wasn’t the only reason I kept myself together and got home in one piece, but it undoubtedly played a small part in it. It was both a distraction and a teacher. All the best books are.
What have you read as an adult?
Niklas Natt och Dag’s The Wolf and the Watchman is coming out in English next year, I think, and I can’t think of anything that’s changed my writing more as an adult. Niklas Natt och Dag and I got to know each other about eight years ago, we had absolutely nothing in common except we both loved storytelling. We’ve been sharing an office ever since. We see each other every day, still have nothing else in common, never needed to. His debut novel is a dark, gruesome murder mystery set in Stockholm in 1793. It will scare the living crap out of you and it’s an experience like few others. I don’t know any other writer like Niklas and it makes me try so much harder every day I sit down across the table from him.
What are you reading now?
My good friend Paul in Chicago, who knows absolutely everyone in Chicago, gave me Alex Kotlowitz’s Never a City So Real when I was there and told me, “If you wanna know anything about Chicago, this is what you start with!” So I did. And I just wouldn’t shut up about it afterward. In a lot of ways, what Kotlowitz accomplished was what I was aiming for when I wrote Beartown: To tell a full story of the soul of a community by telling small stories about the people living there. I was deeply impressed. It’s really got everything I strive for as a writer.