58 pages • 1 hour read
Fredrik Backman, Transl. Henning KochBritt-Marie Was Here
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 13-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary
Britt-Marie is overjoyed with her balcony. She wakes at six o’clock and promptly wakes a very hungover Somebody for help hanging a picture in the recreation center—a map of Borg. Because of Somebody’s height in her wheelchair, the map is hung lower than the other photos on the wall.
Back at the pizzeria, Britt-Marie cleans, much to Somebody’s consternation. Britt-Marie finally realizes, shocked, that much of Somebody’s stock is illegally acquired. Somebody retreats to the kitchen to sleep off her hangover, while Britt-Marie takes over the shop. The grumpy regulars are bemused at her new cleanliness rules but still dislike her city origins. Vega is astounded at Britt-Marie’s changes. Sven enters and sees contraband cigarettes; Britt-Marie lies and says they belong to her. They are interrupted by a BMW and its relatively wealthy passengers: Fredrik, the former trucking company boss who laid off the Borg residents, and his son, Max. Fredrik is condescending and nasty about Borg’s finances, while the boy is self-conscious. Britt-Marie insults Fredrik; the Borg residents are delighted.
Chapter 14 Summary
Britt-Marie styles Pirate’s hair at the recreation center. She feels self-conscious about herself and her marriage, especially when Sven asks Pirate to deliver her “forgotten” contraband cigarettes. She worries that she’ll be perceived as a criminal, even though Kent cheerfully evades his taxes. Pirate explains Borg’s history with Fredrik, as well as Fredrik’s obsession with expensive things—Max prefers soccer, but Fredrik has him play hockey because hockey is more expensive. On the other hand, Pirate explains, “People like soccer just because they like soccer” (118). Britt-Marie tells him an anecdote about Kent insulting her; Pirate is horrified.
As Britt-Marie finishes Pirate’s hair, they see Sami—Vega and Omar’s brother—and his friend Psycho waiting for a pizza. Vega delivers it, obviously disliking Psycho. Pirate explains that the police are afraid of Psycho, then asks if Vega has requested Britt-Marie become their coach so they can compete in the town’s challenge cup. They are interrupted by Pirate’s date—a boy, who calls Pirate “Ben.” Pirate/Ben is comfortably out to his team, much to Britt-Marie’s surprise.
The rat dines and dashes. Britt-Marie cleans up and is disappointed that Sven didn’t come by and offer her a ride back to Bank’s house. She examines the map Somebody hung for her and appreciates the “You are here” dot, a grounding point for her current crisis.
Chapter 15 Summary
On her way home, Britt-Marie leaves money under the pizzeria door to pay for the cigarettes. As she walks back to Bank’s house, a truck zooms by. She has flashbacks to Ingrid’s death. Fredrik’s BMW nearly hits her. Fredrik chastises her for walking in the road but is interrupted by Sami and Psycho, who defend Britt-Marie. Intimidated, Fredrik retreats and leaves. Britt-Marie, also afraid, walks away. Eventually, she turns and sees Sami and Psycho playing soccer. Britt-Marie goes home and watches the snow fall from her balcony.
The next morning, she oversleeps. Vega and Omar invite her to have dinner at their place in order to ask her to be their coach for the competition. Britt-Marie reluctantly agrees to dinner, though she is wary about coaching. After they leave, she calls the case worker to ask about coaching soccer. The woman suggests creating a permission form and taking the register (a type of list). Britt-Marie can do lists.
Chapter 16 Summary
Britt-Marie arrives at Vega’s home and is impressed with Sami’s dedication to order and cleanliness. Sami is touched when Britt-Marie gives him the cigarettes. Britt-Marie is shocked that the family has no parents; Sami is the current head of the family. After dinner, Britt-Marie bonds with Sami on the balcony. On the way to soccer practice that night, Vega and Sami argue about Psycho and money. Britt-Marie and Sami mystify each other with their very different perceptions of soccer.
As the children set up their soccer pitch, Britt-Marie takes the register. She also gives permission forms to each player. Sami suggests having the team do the “Idiot,” a running exercise, saying, “You’re the coach now. If they don’t do what you tell them, they can’t play in the competition” (142). Even though Sami is more qualified than Britt-Marie, he can’t officially coach them because of his criminal record. Britt-Marie settles into her role as coach and embraces her sense of humor.
Chapter 17 Summary
Bank walks by during their practice. Omar dares Toad, another team member, to aim the ball at Bank, joking that Bank’s vision loss gives her superpowers. Toad takes the dare, not expecting to hit her; he does, completely by accident. Bank is furious and leaves after shouting at them. Somebody joins them, having witnessed the exchange. Max, Fredrik’s son, comes by for pizza; he prefers Borg pizza to other places in town.
After practice, Vega and Sami argue about Psycho again. Britt-Marie ponders her new friendship with Somebody. On her way home, Britt-Marie sees Pirate waiting for a bus; he is taking his permission slip to his father and asks Britt-Marie to accompany him. They travel to a prison.
Chapter 18 Summary
On the way, Britt-Marie thinks of Kent. Kent was very disparaging toward (petty) criminals, calling them “gangsters,” despite his own criminal behavior and entrepreneurial failures. Despite everything, she misses him and hopes he is well.
At the prison, Pirate asks her to keep the visit a secret from his mum, who works at the Borg hospital. His nickname comes from his father’s crime: tax evasion. Britt-Marie refuses to call him Pirate anymore and refers to him thereafter as Ben.
Sven arrives, notified by Ben’s mother, who was notified by the prison guards. Sven has the guards bring the permission slip to Ben’s father, who signs it and writes a note for his son. Upon delivering Ben back home, Sven assures Ben that life (and soccer) will continue as usual; Ben can keep the note. Afterward, Sven explains Ben’s father’s desperation during the financial crisis and that his mum works triple shifts to keep them afloat. He also tells her about Sami’s family: Their father was violent and angry, misused alcohol, and beat his children before abandoning them; their mother died in an accident; and Sami is head of the family out of necessity. Although Psycho has financial problems, Sami is loyal to him because Psycho supported them during their hardships. In Borg, such complicated families are common. Sven and Britt-Marie drive past Sami and Psycho’s soccer match; they look happy.
Sven continues, telling Britt-Marie about his own failed marriage. He takes her to a lake to show her “that Borg can be beautiful” (156). Returning to Bank’s, he gifts her a pencil drawing of Britt-Marie’s soccer practice and asks her out to dinner. Britt-Marie is touched by the drawing but hesitant about dinner.
Chapter 19 Summary
Britt-Marie ponders the men in her life. She decides that she doesn’t like calling Kent’s lover “the other woman,” because Britt-Marie “never quite felt like the primary woman herself” (158). As morning dawns, Britt-Marie studies Sven’s drawing on her balcony and calls the case worker to report Toad’s accidentally accurate shot.
At breakfast, she asks Bank for advice about the soccer team and mentions the photos on the walls, many of which feature Bank’s success as a youth soccer star. Bank considers the team a wash and advises Britt-Marie to give up on them. Britt-Marie goes to the recreation center to do laundry and studies the coffee percolator, still in pieces.
She spends the day at the pizzeria, assembling IKEA furniture. To her joyful surprise, the box contains a set of balcony furniture. She uses it to eat pizza for lunch that day. Sven joins her for coffee. Later, Ben’s mother thanks her for taking Ben to the prison and treating him like a person; she’s glad Britt-Marie can see another layer of Borg and gifts her a bottle of Faxin.
During practice, Britt-Marie runs through the routine she has created for the team: taking the register, running the Idiot, and then playing a practice match. Sami educates her on Liverpool’s legendary turnaround against Milan at a Champions League final. After practice, Sven drives Britt-Marie’s balcony furniture to Bank’s. Britt-Marie agrees to his dinner invitation. As she turns to walk home, Vega kicks the ball to her. Britt-Marie kicks it back and anticipates the beginning of her own turnaround.
Chapter 20 Summary
The morning of her date, Britt-Marie wakes in a fantastic mood. She cleans, and then visits Somebody at the pizzeria. Somebody tells her that Bank’s jersey in the pizzeria is from when Bank joined the national team, but that Bank would be furious if she knew it was there. Bank’s low vision was caused by an incurable disease, which made her a fighter; she left when she was young to travel, and without soccer, she and her father—the Borg coach—had nothing in common. Britt-Marie buys a beer for Bank and sends a postcard to Kent. She leaves a Snickers bar and a note for the rat, informing it that she is going on a date.
Before her date, she tries to erase the mark from her wedding ring by going to a tanning salon. Having never used one before, she improvises, deciding to stick her hand in and check it periodically. However, she falls asleep, bumps her head, twists her hand inside the machine, and passes out. The salon cleaning crew delivers her to the Borg hospital, where Ben’s mother tends to her head and two broken fingers. Ben’s mother tells Britt-Marie not to give up, but Britt-Marie is humiliated. In the waiting room, Sven offers to change their dinner date from a restaurant to a picnic, but Britt-Marie insists on going home.
Chapters 13-20 Analysis
The reappearance of balconies is a significant turning point for Britt-Marie. With her safe space to ground her, she feels more prepared to face the challenge of adjusting to Borg and thereby growing as a person. This connection is compounded when she finally assembles the IKEA furniture and discovers that her impulse purchase is in fact balcony furniture. The temporary placement of the furniture in the pizzeria indicates Britt-Marie’s budding friendship with Somebody—by placing an extension of her safe space on Somebody’s property, she indicates her growing comfort with the brash proprietress, despite their class differences and Somebody’s illegal procurement of goods.
Furniture assembly is a useful boost to Britt-Marie’s self-esteem and a solid step on her journey to Self-Actualization and Independence, but so is her assumption of the post of soccer coach. Despite knowing nothing of the sport—and actively disliking it because of Kent’s obsession—Britt-Marie slowly learns to take on proactive leadership through skills she already has, like list-making. Though she relies on Sami for training suggestions, her coaching position gives her the authority and admiration she previously never received. As Sami tells her when she asks about the Idiot exercise, “you’re the coach now; if they don’t listen to you, they can’t play” (142). The confidence boost from this statement allows her to blossom, leading her to explore a sense of humor she previously didn’t believe she had, thanks to Kent’s insults. Despite her progress, however, her humiliation at the tanning salon and her postcard to Kent signal that she is still holding herself back in some ways.
Thematically, The Cycle of Trauma, Coping, Hope, and Resilience advances in this section, specifically through the motif of soccer. Britt-Marie learns that love of the sport—and therefore, the hope it represents—comes in various permutations. One can support a specific professional team, and one can be dedicated enough to try and play by whatever means possible. The latter is demonstrated mainly through Ben, though also by Sami and Psycho. Ben is so determined to stay on the team that he sneaks to the prison to get his father—who is incarcerated—to sign the permission form. This speaks to how much Ben clings to soccer as a support in his father’s absence, but also to how he treasures soccer as a way to maintain a positive relationship with his parents, emphasized through his desire to keep the signed permission form with his father’s note on it. Sami and Psycho, meanwhile, use soccer as a way to maintain their lingering ties to their youth, even as adult burdens like family and money loom over them.
Faxin once again appears as a gift, this time from Ben’s mother, signifying another shift in Britt-Marie’s worldview, this time in regard to criminality. Initially sensitive to the concept, especially given Kent’s tax evasion, Britt-Marie begins to accept the difference intent makes in connection to crime. While Kent’s criminal activity is implied to be for selfish reasons, the petty crime in Borg is due to necessity. Ben’s father evaded taxes out of desperation to support his family, while Somebody and Omar need “affordable” goods to distribute at accessible prices. Psycho’s money troubles likely have a similar cause. Britt-Marie’s own brief, unintentional foray into petty crime—claiming stolen cigarettes as hers—further solidifies her relationship to Borg residents and her own shift in perspective.
As Britt-Marie develops local connections, Social Class as Othering advances as she begins to understand the complexity of their contempt for the upper class. Fredrik, for instance, is hated not just for eliminating the town’s livelihoods, but for his flaunting of wealth and financial stability, which Borg no longer has. Fredrik reminds Borg locals of their own struggles and perceived inferiority. Max, who plays hockey at his father’s command “because it’s expensive” (118), prefers Borg in all its faded glory. Britt-Marie’s interactions with Fredrik—implied to parallel Kent due to the similarity in cars, clothes, and attitude—demonstrate her own transition to Borg’s side, rather than the privilege of her previous life, while Max’s unhappy wavering demonstrates that privilege does not directly correlate to a better life. This is particularly evident in his fear during the clash between Fredrik, Britt-Marie, Sami, and Psycho on the road, when he witnesses underprivileged young men successfully stand up to their oppressor, Max’s supposed role model.
Finally, Britt-Marie begins to move beyond the limitations of her own trauma to empathize with someone else’s—namely, Sami’s. Despite their differences, Britt-Marie and Sami most closely resemble each other. Sami, like Britt-Marie, was forced to grow up too quickly; he also struggles with holding his remaining family together and feeling impotent because of his criminal record and unemployment. Most strikingly, however, are their identical coping methods—cleaning—and their safe spaces—balconies. Though Sami prefers soccer as an outlet for his stress, his homemaking skills and family-oriented mentality make him a mix of Britt-Marie’s protegee, advisor, and comrade-in-arms. Britt-Marie may have Somebody as a friend to call upon at any hour, but Sami is the one who truly sees and understands her, much like Ingrid once did. In this way, Britt-Marie begins to understand that her trauma does not have to be a limitation; it can also allow her to understand, empathize, and build new relationships with others in similar circumstances.
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