Beartown

• Genre: Fiction; contemporary
• Originally Published: 2016
• Reading Level/Interest: Lexile 840L; grades 11-12; college/adult
• Structure/Length: 50 chapters; approx. 432 pages; approx. 13 hours, 11 minutes on audio
• Protagonist and Central Conflict: In a story told from the perspectives of multiple characters, teenager Kevin Erdahl is a star hockey player in a small town where hockey is everything. After he rapes a girl, Maya Andersson, at a party, bitter divisions arise in the community in response to the crime.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Rape; threatened gun violence; suicide and suicidal ideology; substance use; post-traumatic stress disorder

Fredrik Backman, Author

• Bio: Born in 1981 and raised in Helsingborg, Scania, Sweden; a journalist, novelist, and nonfiction writer; lives in Stockholm with his family; works published in 40 countries; Beartown adapted as a TV series on HBO
• Other Works: A Man Called Ove (2014); My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry (2015); And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer (2016); The Deal of a Lifetime (2017); Anxious People (2020)
• Awards: Goodreads Choice Award (shortlisted; 2017); Book of the Year Award Sweden (shortlisted; 2017); Audie Awards for Fiction (audiobook finalist; 2018); International Dublin Literary Award (longlisted; 2019)

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:

• Secrets and Shame
• Grief
• Hockey, Hope, and Obsession

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:

• Gain an understanding of the personal and societal expectations that pressure people to adhere to specific patterns of behavior and suppress secrets they deem shameful.
• Analyze paired texts and other resources to make connections via Beartown’s themes of Secrets and Shame, Grief, and Hockey, Hope, and Obsession.
• Research and draft creative and informative pieces of writing that show an understanding of characters’ motivations as well as the complex topics that complicate the novel’s setting.
• Analyze and evaluate the plot and character details in structured essay responses regarding loyalty, power, and gender.