My Friends (Unabridged)
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4.4 • 693 Ratings
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
A 2026 Audie Award Finalist for Best Fiction Narrator
#1 New York Times bestseller, more than 1 million copies sold!
Winner of the 2025 Goodreads Choice Award for Best Fiction * A Fallon Book Club Pick * USA TODAY Best Books of the Year * NPR Best Books of the Year * Marie Claire 25 Best Novels of the Year * BookPage Best Fiction of the Year * Real Simple Best Books of the Year * Libby Audiobook of the Year
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anxious People returns with an unforgettably funny, deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a complete stranger’s life twenty-five years later.
Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise, and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures.
Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier, telling silly jokes, sharing secrets, and committing small acts of rebellion. These lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream, a reason to love.
Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be placed into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. She embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn how the painting came to be and to decide what to do with it. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more nervous she becomes about what she’ll find. Louisa is proof that happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this stunning testament to the transformative, timeless power of friendship and art.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Fredrik Backman is a warm and observant writer with a striking ability to make you laugh out loud right before the waterworks start. And My Friends may be Backman at his sharpest, funniest, and most deeply emotional. Foster teen Louisa, reeling from a tragic loss, feels an inexplicable connection to a famous painting. Twenty-five years earlier, four troubled teens forge a bond that inspires that very work of art. Honestly, we don’t really want to spoil how these two stories converge, so let’s just say it’s about the healing powers of friendship, the way art can transform us, and how a perfectly timed fart can change everything. Narrator Marin Ireland expertly handles Backman’s trademark tonal shifts, and she does a particularly great job capturing both Louisa’s sarcastic bravado and the ache underneath her tough exterior. Brashly funny and vibrantly alive, My Friends sneaks up on your heart and leaves you just a little more whole than it found you.
Customer Reviews
POWERFUL
Wow, what a story, incredible read, highly recommend
Beautiful and Insightful
Another amazing story by Fredrick Bachman. The characters are delightful and the friendships they develop are wonderful. I loved the playfulness along with the moments of heartbreaking reality (Louisa wanting to thank someone for thinking she had parents broke my heart). Please read. It will sit with you for a while.
Good story
After I got into it and that took a lot.