'The best sports stories are always mythical. 'Then I try to tell that story as well as I can, as entertaining as I can, as exciting as I can, as suspenseful as I can. I try to tell you a really, really good story.' The power of sports stories 'When I tell you something I want it to feel like I'm telling this story just for you. I want it to feel like we're sitting across each other at a table and I say, 'You wanna hear a story?' And you go, 'All right.' I always fall back into that. I think it comes from the fact that I don't want to be an author. 'The fable or or the fairy tale way of telling a story, that's the way I always tell stories. There's a certain sense of pride that it's a tough town - and it's also making them a tough people.' Almost a fairytale They like that it's hard. Not everyone can do this. 'What I'd like to explain about the people of Beartown is that they live there voluntarily. There's a certain sense of pride that it's a tough town - and it's also making them a tough people. I liked telling a story about people who are so affected by nature. But it's a different thing entirely to live in the middle of the forest. You're kind of isolated. It's one thing to live in the countryside. 'I think first and foremost the residents of Beartown are resilient. It's very, very cold. Eleanor spoke to him from his home there.

Sensitive and timely, it explores both the bright and dark sides of 'hockey culture.'īackman was born in Stockholm in 1981. His latest title, The Winners, concludes his powerful Beartown trilogy, which focuses on a small town and its junior hockey club in the forest of northern Sweden. Altogether his books have sold 12 million copies globally, in 46 languages.Īs an awkward, anxious child, Backman fell in love with sports and books. Backman's subsequent titles - including Beartown and Anxious People - were also hugely popular and have been adapted as series for HBO and Netflix. The book spent 90 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and the movie adaptation was nominated for best foreign film at the Oscars, with an upcoming American remake to star Tom Hanks.

Fredrik Backman became a literary phenomenon with the publication of his debut novel, A Man Called Ove, 10 years ago in Sweden.

Fredrik backman winners