PRIME MEMBER EXCLUSIVE | 3 Months Free Trial

Auto-renews at INR 199/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime. Offer ends 15 July, 2026.
Beartown cover art

Beartown

From the New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove, My Friends and Anxious People

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER
3 Months Free Trial
Get this deal
Offer ends on 15 July, 2026 at 11:59 PM IST.
1 credit a month to use on any title.
Listen to anything from the Plus Catalogue—thousands of Audible Originals, podcasts and audiobooks.
₹199 per month after 3 months. Renews automatically. Cancel anytime. Offer ends 15 July, 2026 at 11:59 PM IST.
Download titles to your library and listen offline.

Beartown

Written by: Fredrik Backman
Narrated by: John Sackville
Get this deal

₹199 per month after 3 months. Renews automatically. Cancel anytime. Offer ends 15 July, 2026 at 11:59 PM IST.

Buy Now for ₹546.23

Buy Now for ₹546.23

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Beartown by Fredik Backman, read by John Sackville.

Beartown is a small town in a large Swedish forest.

For most of the year it is under a thick blanket of snow, experiencing the kind of cold and dark that brings people closer together - or pulls them apart.

Its isolation means that Beartown has been slowly shrinking with each passing year. But now the town is on the verge of an astonishing revival. A bright new future is just around the corner.

Until the day it is all put in jeopardy by a single, brutal act.

It divides the town into those who think it should be hushed up and forgotten, and those who'll risk the future to see justice done. At last, it falls to one young man to find the courage to speak the truth that it seems no one else wants to hear.

With the town's future at stake, no one can stand by or stay silent. Everyone is on one side or the other.

Which side would you be on?

Previously published as The Scandal.

Crime Thrillers Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Psychological Small Town & Rural Suspense Thriller & Suspense
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
All stars
Most relevant
Good gripping read .. the town comes alive with the characters .. gets under your skin. One time good read

Good gripping read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Listened this on a recommendation. Now, I think if the translated version is so good, how good is the Swedish version? There are so many characters as there are in dystopian fantasies, but I did not have any problem following them. Most of them are portrayed as static characters; only 4 of them developed through the story : Benji, Maya, Amat and Bobo.

A great social commentary

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In the collection of million feedbacks for this book, one random tech person in an audio book company will stumble upon a hockey Puck which would have words written on it reading "The best... Book... Ever...". And he wouldn't know that the one who left it would have been crying at the end of this, cuz you see, it takes bear to finish it through. You can't live after this.. But only survive.

And a million kilometers from this man who left the Puck, lives another man. He reads, narrates, and gives life for books. He'll never know that a man from the opposite side of the world is thanking him with all his heart.

Its only a book. What can it do? It just touches the life of the people who reads/listens to it.

The best ever

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An expressive narration and some evocative images of the northern town salvage this predictable plot, slowed down by tedious character descriptions.

predictable plot salvaged by expressive narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is a sad book through and through with splashes of happy moments here and there once in a while. This book will overwhelm you mostly with deep feelings of love and belonging and hatred and disgust. But mostly it will leave a long lasting impression on your mind as well as your heart.

best read this year

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews