The Deal of a Lifetime and Other Stories

In this short story enhanced with beautiful illustrations, the bestselling author of A Man Called Ove and Beartown delivers an insightful and poignant tale about finding out what is truly important in life.

A father and a son are seeing each other for the first time in years. The father has a story to share before it’s too late. He tells his son about a courageous little girl lying in a hospital bed a few miles away. She’s a smart kid—smart enough to know that she won’t beat cancer by drawing with crayons all day, but it seems to make the adults happy, so she keeps doing it.

As he talks about this plucky little girl, the father also reveals more about himself: his triumphs in business, his failures as a parent, his past regrets, his hopes for the future.

Now, on a cold winter’s night, the father has been given an unexpected chance to do something remarkable that could change the destiny of a little girl he hardly knows. But before he can make the deal of a lifetime, he must find out what his own life has actually been worth, and only his son can reveal that answer.

With humor and compassion, Fredrik Backman’s The Deal of a Lifetime reminds us that life is a fleeting gift, and our legacy rests in how we share that gift with others.

Fredrik Backman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, Britt-Marie Was Here, Beartown, Us Against You, Anxious People, The Winners, My Friends, as well as two novellas and one work of nonfiction. His books are published in more than forty countries. He lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with his wife and two children. Connect with him on Facebook and X @BackmanLand and on Instagram @Backmansk.

ISBN: 9781982129019
Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: June 18, 2019

PRAISE FOR THE DEAL OF A LIFETIME & OTHER STORIES

"It may make you shed tears, it may make you want to read it again and again, but it certainly will make you think. . . . The key to this collection may be The Deal of a Lifetime, but the other two tales are heartwarming, humorous, and thought-provoking—it’s Backman at his best."
— THE WINNIPEG FREE PRESS"The Deal of a Lifetime is a profound and moving novella."
— TORONTO STARPRAISE FOR US AGAINST YOU

“This is a tale of the pitfalls of group mentality as well as the loss of an innocence we all take for granted—and it will grip you from start to finish.”
— CANADIAN LIVING“Just as the cult TV hit Friday Night Lights wasn’t just about high-school football, this sequel to Beartown . . . is about more than small-town hockey. . . . Us Against You is a story of hopes, dreams, loyalty, friendship, and—after someone is left for dead—the lengths people will go to for the love of the game.”
— CHRIS DANIELS, Hello! CanadaPRAISE FOR BEARTOWN


“I wasn’t sure I would love a novel centred on hockey - but as with Friday Night Lights this is actually a story about people - about strength and tribal loyalty and what we unwittingly do when trying to show our boys how to be men. I utterly believed in the residents of Beartown, and felt ripped apart by the events in the book.”
— JOJO MOYES, bestselling author of Me Before You"Like Friday Night Lights, this is about more than youth sports; it's part coming-of-age novel, part study of moral failure, and finally a chronicle of groupthink in which an unlikely hero steps forward to save more than one person from self-destruction. A thoroughly empathetic examination of the fragile human spirit, Backman's latest will resonate a long time."
— KIRKUS REVIEWS"Backman, a bestseller-list mainstay...returns with the story of a down-and-out town and its hopeful young hockey team...The sentimentally savvy Backman takes a sobering and solemn look at the ways alienation and acceptance, ethics and emotions nearly destroy a small town and young people."
— BOOKLIST“You’ll love this engrossing novel.”
— PEOPLE