The Center for Fiction Presents an Evening with Fredrik Backman

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Wednesday, 7:00 pm EDT January 11, 2023

The Center for Fiction
& Livestreamed

The Winners - Eliana Cohen-Orth

Select In-Person Overflow Seating to view a livestream of the event in our second-floor Members Lounge. All in-person tickets include a $15 Bookstore voucher redeemable toward a copy of The Winners on the night of the event. All registrants will receive a link to livestream the event.

The Center for Fiction is thrilled to welcome beloved Swedish author Fredrik Backman (Anxious People) to celebrate the premiere of A Man Called Otto, the new film adaptation of his acclaimed novel A Man Called Ove, and his newest novel, The Winners. A Man Called Otto is a story of a curmudgeon (played by Tom Hanks) who is challenged to see life differently through an unlikely friendship—a thoughtful exploration of the profound impact one life has on countless others.

Backman will join author Christina Baker Kline (The Exiles) to discuss the adaptation of his novel for the screen and introduce the highly anticipated conclusion to the Beartown series, The Winners. Exploring questions of friendship, loyalty, loss, and identity, the novel brings readers back to the close-knit, resilient community for a story about first loves, second chances, and last goodbyes. This conversation is a not-to-miss event for long-time and brand-new Backman fans alike!

The Winners - Eliana Cohen-Orth

In Conversation

Featuring

  1. . 
    The Winners - Eliana Cohen-Orth

    The Winners

    By Fredrik Backman

    Published by Atria Books/Simon and Schuster

    PURCHASE

    Over the course of two weeks, everything in Beartown will change.

    Maya Andersson and Benji Ovich, two young people who left in search of a life far from the forest town, come home and joyfully reunite with their closest childhood friends. There is a new sense of optimism and purpose in the town, embodied in the impressive new ice rink that has been built down by the lake.

    Two years have passed since the events that no one wants to think about. Everyone has tried to move on, but there’s something about this place that prevents it. The destruction caused by a ferocious late-summer storm reignites the old rivalry between Beartown and the neighboring town of Hed, a rivalry which has always been fought through their ice hockey teams.

    Maya’s parents, Peter and Kira, are caught up in an investigation of the hockey club’s murky finances, and Amat—once the star of the Beartown team—has lost his way after an injury and a failed attempt to get drafted into the NHL. Simmering tensions between the two towns turn into acts of intimidation and then violence. All the while, a fourteen-year-old boy grows increasingly alienated from this hockey-obsessed community and is determined to take revenge on the people he holds responsible for his beloved sister’s death. He has a pistol and a plan that will leave Beartown with a loss that is almost more that it can stand.

    As it beautifully captures all the complexities of daily life and explores questions of friendship, loyalty, loss, and identity, this emotion-packed novel asks us to reconsider what it means to win, what it means to lose, and what it means to forgive.

  2. . 
    A Man Called Ove - Eliana Cohen-Orth

    A Man Called Ove

    By Fredrik Backman

    Published by Atria Books/Simon and Schuster

    PURCHASE

    Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon—the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him “the bitter neighbor from hell.” But must Ove be bitter just because he doesn’t walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?

    Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents’ association to their very foundations.

    Fredrik Backman’s beloved first novel about the angry old man next door is a thoughtful exploration of the profound impact one life has on countless others. “If there was an award for ‘Most Charming Book of the Year,’ this first novel by a Swedish blogger-turned-overnight-sensation would win hands down” (Booklist, starred review).

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    A Man Called Ove - Eliana Cohen-Orth
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    A Man Called Otto

    Based on the # 1 New York Times bestseller A Man Called Ove, A Man Called Otto tells the story of Otto Anderson (Tom Hanks), a grump who no longer sees purpose in his life following the loss of his wife. Otto is ready to end it all, but his plans are interrupted when a lively young family moves in next door, and he meets his match in quick-witted Marisol. She challenges him to see life differently, leading to an unlikely friendship that turns his world around. A heartwarming and funny story about love, loss, and life, A Man Called Otto shows that family can sometimes be found in the most unexpected places.

    Directed by Marc Forster (Finding Neverland), A Man Called Otto stars Tom Hanks (Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, Cast Away), Mariana Treviño (Club the Cuervos), Rachel Keller (Fargo) and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (The Magnificent Seven). The screenplay is written by Academy Award® nominee David Magee (Best Adapted Screenplay, Life of Pi, 2012; Best Adapted Screenplay, Finding Neverland, 2004) based upon the best-selling novel A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, and the film A Man Called Ove by Hannes Holm. The film is being produced by Fredrik Wikström Nicastro, Rita Wilson, Tom Hanks, and Gary Goetzman.

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