“How did you know I was here?”
“Your sisters told me.”
He smiles radiantly. “They’re very untrustworthy, my sisters.”
Maya laughs. “Untrustworthy as hell!”
The sleeves of her jacket are slightly too short; she’s gotten taller this year without her jacket realizing it. Two fresh tattoos are visible on her lower arms. One is of a guitar, the other a rifle.
Benji nods. “I like them.”
“Thanks. Where are you going?” she asks.
He considers his reply for a long time. “I don’t know. Just . . . somewhere else.”
She nods. Hands him a piece of paper containing a brief handwritten text. “I got into music school. I’ll be moving in January. I don’t know if you’ll be back here before then, so I . . . I just wanted to give you this.”
While he reads it, she starts to walk back toward her mom’s car. When he’s finished, he calls after her, “MAYA!”
“WHAT?” she shouts back.
“DON’T LET THE BASTARDS SEE YOU CRY!”
She laughs with tears in her eyes. “NEVER, BENJI! NEVER!”
* * *
Perhaps they will never meet again, but she wrote all the biggest things she feels for him on that scrap of paper:
I wish you courage
I wish you rushing blood
A heart that beats too hard
Feelings that make everything too hard
Love that gets out of control
The most intense adventures
I hope you find your way out
I hope you’re the kind of person
Who gets a happy ending
* * *
The sun will make its way up over our town again tomorrow. Incredibly.
* * *
A young woman named Ana will dig deep enough within herself to find the strength to go on living. Because people like her always do, somehow. A few months from now, a long way away in a big city, she will compete for the first time in her sport. Jeanette kisses her forehead in the locker room. Maya stands beside her, punches Ana’s gloved hands with her own clenched fists, and whispers, “I love you, you idiot!” Ana smiles sadly and replies, “I love you, you moron.” She has the same tattoos as Maya on her lower arms: a guitar and a rifle. Ana’s father is standing outside the locker room. He’s still trying.
When Ana steps into the ring to confront her opponent, a section of the audience stands up, as if on command. They don’t shout out, but they’re wearing black jackets, and they all put one hand very briefly on their hearts when she looks at them.
“Who are they?” the referee asks in surprise.
Ana blinks up at the roof. She imagines the sky beyond it. “Those are my brothers and sisters. They stand tall if I stand tall.”
When the fight begins, Ana has just one opponent in the ring. It doesn’t make any difference, she could have been facing a hundred of them. They wouldn’t have stood a chance.
* * *
And the sun rises. Tomorrow, again.
* * *
A boy from the Hollow, a boy named Amat, a boy everyone thought was too small and weak to be really good at hockey, will run all the way along the main road to the NHL. He becomes a professional on the ice, and his childhood friend Zacharias from the next block becomes a professional in front of a computer screen. Some of the girls and boys they grew up with will take the wrong path, some will pass away too soon, but some will find their way to lives of their own. Big, proud lives. None of them ever forgets where they came from.
A dad named Hog goes on repairing cars in a garage, fighting for his children, taking each day as it comes. They visit Ann-Katrin’s grave each morning. His eldest son, Bobo, who can pull axes from car hoods but has still never really learned to skate well, gradually becomes good friends with a hockey coach who’s bad at emotions. Zackell makes him her assistant coach. He does a hell of a good job at it.
Ramona rebuilds her pub. When it reopens, everyone in Beartown and a fair few of the bastards from Hed line up for hours to go in and buy a beer and leave their change in an envelope with the words THE KITTY written on it. Beartown’s hockey coach eats her potatoes free of charge for the whole of the next year. But she has to pay for her beer; this isn’t a damn charity, you know.
In one corner sit five old women. At the bar sit four old men. It isn’t always easy. But if you say that to them, they’ll reply that it’s not supposed to be.
Alicia, four and a half years old, will turn five. She’s in the ice rink every day, but she will still stand in an old man’s garden from time to time and slap pucks into the wall next to his terrace, and one day she will be the best.
When spring comes, three grown men meet one Sunday afternoon in the parking lot outside the supermarket. Peter, Tails, and Hog. They have slightly less hair and slightly larger stomachs now than when they last played together twenty years ago, but they have their hockey sticks and a tennis ball with them. Their wives and children carry out one net, laughing and shouting cheeky challenges to their dads as they carry the other. Then the families start to play, as if nothing else mattered.
* * *
Because it’s a simple game if you strip away all the crap surrounding it and just keep the things that made us love it in the first place.
* * *
Everyone gets a stick. Two nets. Two teams.
* * *
Us against you.
This reading group guide for US AGAINST YOU includes an introduction, discussion questions, and ideas for enhancing your book club. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book.
Introduction
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, its residents have 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, a surprising new coach who gives Beartown hockey a chance at a comeback.
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 the people of both towns will be forced to wonder if, after everything, the game they love can ever return to something as simple as a field of ice, two nets, and two teams. Us against you.
Topics & Questions for Discussion
1. Backman describes the struggle between Beartown and Hed as one between the Bear and the Bull. What does this metaphor represent besides two fearsome animals fighting each other? What do these symbols say about the character of each town?
2. Early in the book, Maya and Ana retreat to a special place far from the rest of Beartown. Read Maya’s song, “The Island.” What do you think this little piece of land means to both of them?
3. Kira makes sacrifices so that Peter can be manager of Beartown hockey. Does Peter make sacrifices for his family, too? Discuss the way their relationship changes over the course of the book.
4. Peter tells Ann-Katrin: “I’m afraid the club might demand more from your sons than it can give back to them.”. Bobo, Benji, and Amat must take their place in the world of men when they join the A-team. How does this change force them to grow up? In what ways does it expose their immaturities? What are the different ways each boy tries to fit in with and be accepted by the older players? In the end, are Peter’s fears of what the club will demand of the players justified?
5. People from Hed burn a Beartown Jersey in their town square. This event doesn’t hurt anyone physically, but would you still consider it an act of violenc
e? How does this small symbolic act become amplified and have the power to do so much relational damage?
6. What special challenges do Maya and Ana face as they near adulthood? Do you think two such different girls will be able to maintain their friendship as they head down separate paths?
7. “When we describe how the violence between these two towns started, most of us will no longer remember what came first”. What do you think the tipping point was? What do you think the novel says about human beings’ innate tendency toward violence?
8. A theme in Us Against You is tribalism versus community. Both dynamics are grounded in a sense of loyalty formed around a shared identity, but what makes them different? How can a strong community become insular and intolerant?
9. Two outsiders come to town, Elisabeth Zackell and Richard Theo. How does each person understand the culture in Beartown, and how do they use that understanding to their individual advantage?
10. “People’s reactions to leadership are always the same: if your decisions benefit me, you’re fair, and if the same decision harms me, you’re a tyrant.”. Are there any characters in Beartown who act against their own self-interest? What do you think are their reasons for doing so?
11. When Ana breaks Benji’s trust and reveals his secret, do you understand her action? Is what she does to Benji made more forgivable because of the circumstances?
12. Retaliation is a constant theme throughout the book. Are there any characters who try to break this cycle of violence? What do you think it takes for this pattern to be broken?
13. Richard Theo says to Peter: “They rule with the help of violence. A democracy can’t allow that. Anyone who becomes powerful because they’ve physically fought their way to the top needs to be opposed.” Do you agree with Theo? Does Theo rule with the help of violence?
14. Sports has the power to divide and the power to unite. On balance, do you think Beartown would be better off with or without its hockey club?
15. “We will say ‘things like this are no one’s fault,’ but of course they are. Deep down we will know the truth. It’s plenty of people’s fault. Ours.” Do you agree with this statement, or are their forces outside of the Beartown citizens’ control that are, in part, responsible for the violence?
Enhance Your Book Club
1. Interview fanatical fans of any sport. Ask them why they feel such a strong connection to their team. See if you can match their motivations to a character in Us Against You.
2. Tom Hanks will be starring as the title character in in a film adaptation of Fredrik Backman’s novel A Man Called Ove. There are so many great characters in Beartown; who would you cast to play them in a movie?
3. Research a local or popular sports rivalry (e.g. the New York Yankees and Boston Red Socks; Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics; Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears; Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks). How are their rivalries like the rivalry between Hed and Beartown? Are there off-the-field reasons that this rivalry is such an important one?
4. Pick a theme or scene from the book to draw inspiration from and write eight–sixteen lines of lyrics for a song that captures the emotions and tone of the scene. Look to Maya’s songs in the book for examples.
Don’t miss these other irresistable novels by New York Times bestselling author Fredrik Backman.
Meet Ove, a grumpy yet loveable man who finds his solitary world turned on its head when a boisterous young family moves in next door.
A Man Called Ove
* * *
A charming, warmhearted novel about a young girl whose grandmother leaves behind a series of letters, sending her on a journey that brings to life the world of her grandmother’s fairy tales.grandmother’s fairy tales.
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry
* * *
A touching and hilarious story of a reluctant outsider who transforms a tiny village and a woman who finds love and second chances in the unlikeliest of places.
Britt-Marie Was Here
* * *
A moving portrait of an elderly man's struggle to hold on to his most precious memories, and his family's efforts to care for him even as they must find a way to let go.
And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer
* * *
Beartown has always been told it is second best. Now the junior ice hockey team has a chance to become champions. But it's what happens off the ice that will change this town forever.
Beartown
* * *
A novella set on Christmas Eve about the intertwining destinies of a man who has built a global business empire but lost his family in the process and a courageous little girl fighting for her life.
The Deal of a Lifetime
* * *
ORDER YOUR COPIES TODAY!
About the Author
FREDRIK BACKMAN is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (in development as a major motion picture starring Tom Hanks), My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, Britt-Marie Was Here, and Beartown, 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.
MEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT
SimonandSchuster.com
Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Fredrik-Backman
Facebook.com/AtriaBooks @AtriaBooks @AtriaBooks
ALSO BY FREDRIK BACKMAN
A Man Called Ove
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry
Britt-Marie Was Here
And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer
Beartown
The Deal of a Lifetime
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2017 by Fredrik Backman
English language translation copyright © 2018 by Neil Smith
Published by arrangement with the Salomonsson Agency
Originally published in Sweden in 2017 by Bokforlaget Forum as Vi mot er
First Atria Books hardcover edition June 2018
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Jacket art and design by Alan Dingman
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Author photograph © Linnéa Jonasson Bernholm/Appendix Fotografi
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
ISBN 978-1-5011-6079-0
ISBN 978-1-5011-6081-3 (ebook)
Us Against You Page 43