My Friends
A Novel
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4.5 • 1.9K Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A Fallon Book Club Pick
WINNER OF THE 2025 GOODREADS CHOICE AWARDS FOR BEST FICTION
A Most Anticipated Book of 2025: Goodreads • USA TODAY • Marie Claire • BookPage • Literary Lifestyle • Book Riot • Sunset Magazine • Totally Booked with Zibby Owens
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 warmly observant writer with a striking ability to make you laugh out loud right before the waterworks start. My Friends may be Backman at his sharpest, funniest, and most 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. Brashly funny and vibrantly alive, My Friends sneaks up on your heart and leaves you just a little more whole than it found you.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Backman (The Winner) delivers a wistful story about the power of friendships. The day before her 18th birthday, Louisa sneaks into an auction house to see The One of the Sea, the first painting by a famous artist who goes by C. Jat. After a guard chases her out, she has a brief encounter in the alley with the artist, whom she initially mistakes for a homeless person. The painter, whose real name is revealed later in the story, has been dealing with a long illness, and just before he dies, he tasks his friend Ted, one of four boys depicted in the 25-year-old painting, with tracking down Louisa to gift it to her. Louisa has just aged out of foster care and is reeling from the recent death of her close friend from an overdose. Though she worries she's not capable of taking responsibility for the painting, she finds comfort in the story Ted tells her of the summer the painting was made, when the friends were 14 and they were all dealing with upheaval. Ted's father had died that summer, and the artist's unstable single mother was urging him to "just try to be normal." Louisa and Ted's interactions feel genuine, which makes the effect of his story on her all the more moving. The author is at the top of his game.
Customer Reviews
I was transported
I have read many books.
I wish I was an author to articulate how beautiful this book was.
If this were real life- there wouldn’t be a way to write about it. You’d never get the story across to where people could feel it. If this story were real, it would be heartbreaking because unless you lived it- you’ll never experience it or be able to share it with anyone. It’s too big and beautiful.
Nobody would have the words to say to convey the life of this magnificent experience.
And yet somehow, Fredrick Backman did.
My Friends
It’s been a while that I’ve loved a book that I highlight sentences, words, quotes, and the letters jump off the pages and touch my heart and images dance in my imagination! A story of life long friendships, how good friends protect reality, and the beauty of art is a thing to be celebrated!
Wow!
This is the absolute best book I have ever read. I just finished it and I’m going to reread it. I’m buying a copy for everyone that is close to me. It’s for friends, artists, friends of artists, brothers and moms! Absolutely beautifully written.