The Winners

Maya Andersson is an 18-year-old music student who moved away from Beartown two years before The Winners begins. Maya has a gun tattooed on one arm and a guitar tattooed on the other. These symbolize her friendship with Ana and her own ability to survive. In the beginning of the trilogy, Maya was raped by the star of the Beartown hockey team, Kevin. She reported the rape to the police before the hockey final, which led to Kevin’s arrest and the team’s loss. This made her the subject of malicious gossip when some people in the town believed Kevin more than they believed her. Although she got her revenge by making Kevin think she was going to kill him, she continues to suffer ill effects from the assault, showing that healing from trauma is not linear.

Maya states that her childhood ended on the night of Kevin’s assault. The Winners shows her progress into a successful adulthood, despite the trauma she endured. She becomes a protector of children and a comforter of her loved ones, giving her father a space to mourn after Ramona’s death. This shift into adulthood makes her nostalgic for the past, and her efforts to heal have allowed her to find joy in things that once brought her stress. Although the reader has known that Maya is destined for fame since Beartown, this novel lays the foundation for her musical success, showing how she can transform pain into art.

Matteo is a boy in his midteens mourning the death of his sister, Ruth. He has always felt like an outsider in Beartown, and he is bullied by his peers. While Ruth was alive, she claimed that he was different from the others because he was more sensitive. There are moments in the novel that support her claim. For example, he takes great pains to maintain the illusion of normalcy for his parents, even to the detriment of his own well-being. Matteo’s parents are strict and religious, and his mother is emotionally volatile. In Matteo’s isolation, his resentment over his sister’s death grows over time. Finally, he takes justice into his own hands, and he begins to kill the people that he thinks are responsible for Ruth’s death, beginning with Rodri, who sexually assaulted her before she moved away to escape her environment.

Leo is Maya’s brother, as Matteo is Ruth’s. Matteo and Leo parallel each other in that they are both boys whose sisters were the subject of sexual abuse. While Leo was supported by his parents when he started to turn to violence, Matteo’s parents withdrew in a state of mourning, leaving Matteo isolated and alone, left to fend for himself. With no positive outlet for his distress and no one to confide in, he turned to violence as the only way he could honor Ruth and shed his own helplessness and shame. Backman’s use of the omniscient narrator highlights the many ways that people could have interceded in Matteo’s story to provide a different outcome but did not. In doing so, he makes Matteo’s actions understandable but inexcusable.

Alicia is a seven-year-old girl from the Hollow, the impoverished part of Beartown, who is an up-and-coming hockey star. She finds refuge with Sune and Adri, spending time with them rather than in her own abusive household. Everyone in Beartown has identified her as being a spectacular hockey player even at her young age; Tails reports that she played with the boys’ teams for a while until she surpassed their skill level and parents complained. In the future, she plays for the national team and uses the surname Ovich instead of her own.

Alicia is not the focus of the novel, but Backman surprises the reader at the end by stating that the whole trilogy is her story. The trilogy occurs during her formative years and establishes the foundation for who she will be as an adult. Benji briefly mentors Alicia before his death, and his loss cements his lessons in her head. She gains a powerful perspective from him, channeling his teachings with her own talent. Alicia’s successes as a hockey player would not have been possible without his influence, and Benji would not have been able to provide positive influence had it not been for the events of the other two novels. Thus, Alicia’s future rise to success through hardship invites the reader to reflect on cause and effect, revealing the connectivity between communities, individuals, and environments.

Amat begins the novel in a place of intense emotional uncertainty. Once the A-team hockey star, an injury and failure to be drafted into the NHL shook his confidence. He begins the novel drinking heavily and having gained weight from not exercising. He leaves his apartment for the first time in months during the storm to get his mother home safely. That night, and their tender discussion afterward, inspires Amat to start exercising again and reconcile with the friends he hurt through his previous attitude and actions. He faces his anxieties and ultimately proves himself worthy of a spot on the A-team again, where he is welcomed by his teammates in an act of wordless forgiveness.

Amat’s story is one of facing fears and overcoming internal obstacles. He kept his initial injury a secret because he felt as if he owed Beartown for the way it supported him, a feeling that gradually soured when hockey’s demands heightened. When he returned from the United States, having realized he placed his faith in the wrong people, his embarrassment and shame kept him from facing those he believed he disappointed. His community and relationships save him from continuing his downward spiral; Bobo is the first to welcome Amat back without question, and Mumble immediately accepts Amat’s offer to train together again. Their friendship supports him even when he sees himself as undeserving, allowing him to face other members of the community who hold more authority and sway. His eventual success as a professional hockey player is made possible by his grit and by the love of his friends, showing how differently things turn out for those with strong support systems.