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Title details for Home and Away by Mats Sundin - Available

Home and Away

by Mats Sundin
Amy Stuart
ebook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
INSTANT #1 BESTSELLER

In one of the last great remaining untold stories in all of sports, the Hall of Fame Toronto Maple Leafs captain Mats Sundin shares for the first time an unfiltered look at playing hockey in Sweden and across North America as part of the sport's most fabled franchises.
Growing up in Sollentuna, Sweden, on the outskirts of Stockholm, Mats Sundin skated on the lake downhill from his house, a house his father had built with his own hands, on land his mother insisted on buying for their future. In the darkness of the Scandinavian winter Sundin would chase after his older brother on that lake for countless hours. Summers spent in nature with his grandparents instilled a lifelong love for the outdoors. Playing hockey in their driveway, the three Sundin brothers imagined scenes of suiting up for Sweden's national team and scoring a game winning goal against their favoured rival, the Soviet Union. It wasn't until his late teens that he caught the eyes of scouts and coaches from the other side of the Atlantic. At the 1989 NHL draft, eighteen-year-old Sundin was as surprised as anyone when he was selected first overall by the Quebec Nordiques.

After a few years as a Nordique, Sundin was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for the highly popular Leaf captain, Wendel Clark. In his early years in Toronto, he felt both at home and from away, working extra hard to gain acceptance in the world's toughest hockey market. Even once he was named captain, Sundin didn't deviate from his quiet nature but instead lead by example, never asking anyone to work harder than he did. Over thirteen seasons with the team, he would learn just how fiery the cauldron of Leafs Nation could be.

In Home and Away, Mats Sundin writes openly for the first time about what it was like for him to uproot his life in Sweden to embark on a long hockey career an ocean away. Home and Away is an elegiac, heartfelt, and honest story of a man who followed his passions, cherished his family, faced heavy scrutiny, and ultimately earned his way into both the hearts of fans and the hockey record books. His journey transcends the rink and shows what it means to be a quiet and unpretentious Swedish kid who went on to become one of the most accomplished players in the history of the game.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    October 22, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781668053591

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781668053591
      • File size: 59222 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 2, 1994
      Hedy Gallagher Castle measures out the days of this story by the calendar of the Persian Gulf War and the schedule of her daughter's high school basketball team. These two ``home and away'' battles create a rich metaphorical backdrop for Hedy's own struggle to find her own center. Married for 19 years to Ward Castle, two-time world record-holder in speed skiing, Hedy has been raising 15-year-old basketball star Jen singlehandedly while Ward has flitted as far as Grenoble in search of a comeback 140-mph record. Responsible also for her stroke-damaged father, Hedy works at the I-80 California border station, dispassionately disposing of fruits and ferrets in a vigilant effort to keep the state pest-free. When her daughter's best friend becomes pregnant and her coach is accused of lesbianism, Hedy is pressed to take a slightly sitcommish stand in the face of small-town fundamentalism, which Meschery ( In a High Place ) portrays via a laugh-out-loud description of the hamstrung Family Life Education committee. Hedy is slower to own up to her views on marriage and her love affair with sportswriter Pink Lindstrom, a liaison that keeps the reader turning pages as fast as the account of the final basketball game. Crackling with humor and pathos, this is a thoroughly satisfying read.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      November 11, 2024
      NHL Hall of Famer Sundin mostly sticks to his life on the ice in his paint-by-numbers debut memoir. Sundin, the son of a former hockey goaltender, was born in Sweden in 1971, and he developed a competitive streak early on: “to me, there was no... setting where having fun was more important than winning.” After playing for school teams, an 18-year-old Sundin became the first European player to be the top pick in the NHL draft; he started his career with the Quebec Nordiques (now the Colorado Avalanche) before being traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1994. For the most part, Sundin skates across the surface of his life’s milestones, including winning a gold medal with the Swedish national hockey team, his 2009 marriage, and his retirement from the NHL in the 2010s, when he returned to Sweden to start a family. The author’s tender admission that he looks forward to becoming “the parent in the stands, the equipment manager, the support person,” for his children is about as close as he comes to true vulnerability. Still, hockey diehards will appreciate Sundin’s insights into how he honed his craft.

Formats

  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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