Åshöjdens BK is a series of young adult novels written by Max Lundgren. The first book in the series, titled simply "Åshöjdens BK" was released in 1967 and spawned three sequels, a comic book adaptation and a TV-series.
In the mid-fifties, Åshöjden is a small town in north-eastern Scania, where nothing happens. The Bilberry King owns everything, sometimes people move away and never come back, and the local football team dosses about in the bottom of division 5. However, when the government decides to build a new highway through the tiny town and the retired national team striker "Baker" Olsson takes over the local café, things are set to change.
The story is narrated by Jorma Engmark, one of the Bilberry King's sons, and tells the story of his and his brother Edward's late adolescence, the ups-and-downs of their lives and their adventures as members of the local football team.
Tropes included in this work include:
- Anonymous Benefactor: Subverted. The football club receives a sizeable donation anonymously at a time when, in order to move to a higher division, they need to renovate their home field, build new changing rooms, etc. However, no-one is stupid enough to believe the donor is anyone other than the local magnate whose sons are also in the team's starting line-up, a.k.a. the Bilberry King. "Baker", who knows how sponsorship deals are done, makes sure the Bilberry King gets a reserved seat field-side, over the latter's vigorous protests.
- Boomerang Bigot: The Bilberry King is a staunch anti-ziganist, in spite of being half-Roma. It is implied that he is dealing with Parental Abandonment issues of his own.
- Byronic Hero: Edward is one. While he is handsome, charismatic and gifted (in a Brilliant, but Lazy sort of way), as well as the football team's star striker and a local hero, he is also haunted by the fact that his biological father preferred to volunteer for The Winter War over being a husband to his mother and a father to him, and driven almost to the point of obsession to prove that he is more than the local magnate's pampered son.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Hittejoel has a stammer and severe self-confidence issues due to relentless bullying, but his agility, quick mind and utter fearlessness make him a born goalie.
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Defictionalization: Meta example. Whenever a team from the bush leagues rises meteorically through the tables, the press are guaranteed to use the phrase "Like Åshöjden, but real!". The most recent time this happened was in 1996, when Ljungskile managed to rise from Division 5 to the All-Swedish league in six years. - Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The Bilberry King made his fortune organizing local berry-pickers and gathering and selling bulk quantities of bilberries.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Edward, due to his issues, tends to prefer high risk, high reward decisions. Jorma, on the other hand, is more careful. This applies both on the football field and in life.
- I Own This Town: The Bilberry King.Jorma: The Bilberry King owned most things in Åshöjden. He owned forests and fields, farms and homes, sawmills and stores. Sometimes, it almost felt as if he owned the people too.
- Known Only by Their Nickname: Multiple characters.
- The Bilberry King is never referred to by any other name. Even his sons never call him anything else.
- If "Baker" isn't "Baker" Olsson's given name, we never find out.
- Several of the minor characters in the football team are examples. "Ball", "Stork", "Sjunne" Svensson and "Knife" Jönsson spring to mind.
- Double-Sven is a downplayed example. No-one calls him anything other than "Double-Sven", but everyone knows his real name is Sven Svensson, because that's why he got the nickname.
- Master of None: Jorma's problem as a football player. He is a decent striker, but nowhere near Edward's level. He has a decent eye for the game, but can't compete with "Baker" as a playmaker. He works reasonably well on defense, but doesn't have "Ball"'s bulk, Double-Sven's technical skill or "Knife"'s sheer relentless ferocity. He can even goaltend a bit, but is nowhere near as good as Hittejoel. In the end, he finds his home on the mid-field, where he can use his knowledge of how his brother thinks to act as a playmaker for him.
- No Communities Were Harmed: Åshöjden is a thinly veiled version of Åsljunga, a small town in north-eastern Scania which was cut through by the E4 highway, and also, incidentally, is the place where the author spent his boyhood summers playing football with Åsljunga SK.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: "Baker" might have been a fairly unremarkable player on the national level, as well as of retirement age for a footballer, but in the bush leagues he is an unstoppable juggernaut.
- Old Guard Versus New Blood: In-universe, concerning the football team. The New Blood, represented primarily by Edward and Jorma, want to take football seriously and bring the team up the league ladder. The Old Guard, represented by "Knife" Jönsson, consider football to be an excuse to kick a ball around for a couple of hours on Sunday afternoons and then go and get drunk, and prefer a more relaxed attitude to tournament play.
- Parental Abandonment: A recurring theme.
- Jorma was sent overseas, away from the war. Jorma understands his parents' reasons, and is probably the character who deals best with his issues.
- Edward's father volunteered for the Winter War. While he states his reasons as patriotic, it is heavily implied he was trying to escape the responsibility of fatherhood. Edward takes it... poorly.
- Parental Substitute: Hittejoel looks up to "Baker" as a father figure. "Baker", in turn, does his best to build up the bullied boy into a good man and footballer.
- Put on a Bus: Several characters drift out of focus as the series moves on. Most notable is probably Björn Backe, who is Edward and Jorma's closest friend in the first book, but is all but gone from the rest of the series.
- Raised by Grandparents: Edward is the Bilberry King's biological grandson, but the only one who refers to the Bilberry King as Edward's grandfather is the Bilberry King himself, and that only when he's trying to guilt trip Edward into doing something. Unlike most examples, it is made explicit why; Edward's father went off to fight in the Winter War and died in Finland, his mother went to the Bilberry King for help, and died of illness shortly after.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Outgoing, passionate and driven Edward is Red, calm, cautious and deliberate Jorma is Blue.
- Romani: Anti-ziganism is a consistent theme throughout the book and several characters, even sympathetic ones (including Jorma, the narrator), are casually racist towards Roma.
- The narrative, however, is far kinder. Roma are portrayed as clannish, violent, prone to drunkenness and mistrustful of outsiders, but this is always portrayed as a result of the extreme and systematic prejudice they face rather than "it's how those people are". On the flip-side, Roma are also portrayed as hard-working, strongly family-minded and loyal, almost to a fault, to the people that earn their trust. The common stereotype of Roma as thieves and hucksters also never appears.
- Self-Made Man: The Bilberry King made his fortune with his own hands, first by organizing local berry pickers, later by parlaying his bilberry connections into a produce wholesale network.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Edward and Jorma were, in Jorma's words "as different and as close as it was possible for two people to be."
- Took a Level in Badass: When "Baker" appointed Hittejoel team captain, most people wondered what the hell the man was thinking. After Hittejoel, in fourteen calm, completely un-stammered words, managed to talk "Knife" Jönsson into stopping picking a fight with the referee and leaving the field for the rest of the game, no-one wondered anymore.
- Underdogs Never Lose: Oh yes, they do. Åshöjden rises meteorically, but they have bad games here and there. Notably, they also lose the last game in the series, the qualifier for the All-Swedish League.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: The Bilberry King does love his sons unconditionally, but is also a somewhat distant, stern and demanding figure, who expects his sons to excel at whatever they turn their hands to, and eventually take over the bilberry business. He also does not take kindly to his sons choosing semi-pro football over continuing their education though he gets better, enough so that he starts using his field-side seat and eventually becomes a fixture at Åshöjden's home games.
