Crossroads

CBC Books | | Posted: February 3, 2021 10:05 PM | Last Updated: December 14, 2021

Kaleb Dahlgren

Image | BOOK COVER: Crossroads by Kaleb Dahlgren

(Collins)

On April 6, 2018, sixteen people died and thirteen others were injured after a bus taking the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team to a playoff game collided with a transport truck in a rural intersection. The tragedy moved millions of people to leave hockey sticks by their front door to show sympathy and support for the Broncos. People from more than eighty countries pledged millions of dollars to families whose relatives had been directly involved in the accident.

Crossroads is the story of Kaleb Dahlgren, a young man who survived the bus crash and faced life after the tragedy with resiliency and positivity. In this chronicle of his time with the Broncos and the loving community of Humboldt, Saskatchewan, Dahlgren takes a hard look at his experience of unprecedented loss, but also revels in the overwhelming response and outpouring of love from across Canada and around the world. But this book also goes much deeper, revealing the adversity Dahlgren faced long before his time in Humboldt and his inspiring journey since the accident.

From a childhood spent learning to live with type 1 diabetes to his remarkable recovery from severe brain trauma that astounded medical professionals, Dahlgren documents a life of perseverance, gratitude and hope in the wake of enormous obstacles and life-altering tragedy. (From HarperCollins Canada)

Kaleb Dahlgren is a student at York University, where he plays on the varsity hockey team. Crossroads is his first book.

From the book

There were 29 people with us — 29 different stories, and mine was just one of them. Each individual was an important part of the group we had become: from our veterans to our rookies and affiliate players, our play-by-play announcer to our statistician, our bus driver, our athletic therapist, and our coaches. Everyone played a pivotal role in building a team culture unlike any other.

Of course, I think we were pretty extraordinary — that's why I wanted to be a Bronco — but truth be told, we were also pretty ordinary in so many ways. A team just like any other, covering excessive numbers of kilometres, crisscrossing the flat prairies to different cities and towns.

Interviews with Kaleb Dahlgren

Media Video | The National : Humboldt Broncos crash survivor Kaleb Dahlgren finds a future after disaster

Caption: Three years after the Humboldt Broncos bus crash, Kaleb Dahlgren will never play competitive hockey again. But he’s found a new future and his own ways to keep the memory of the 16 people killed in the crash alive, which he talks about in a new book.