When I give this four stars, I realize I'm being stingy and I'm only holding back because the first book in this series was so fantastic that I can't compare anything else to it – though the second and third books in this trilogy are both strong and also brought me to tears. So: Backman's magic continues into this, the final story of Beartown, and I'm better for having read it.

I don't love everything Backman's written (Britt Marie and My Grandmother, for example), but if it were left to me, I'd still grant him the Pulitzer for the Beartown trilogy. Even at its clumsiest, I love the characters, I feel the place, and I'm rooting for them all. There's always at least a scene or two that give me an unexpected punch to the gut.

He's so great at capturing: the politics and nuances of small towns; the emotions of parenting, sports, friendships, birth and death – in no particular order; the humanity of characters, no matter how heinous their actions; the complexity of the life condition.

Read it.