My Friends

A Novel

by Fredrik Backman

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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

A Most Anticipated Book of 2025: Goodreads • USA TODAY • Marie Claire • BookPage • Literary Lifestyle • Book Riot • Sunset Magazine • Totally Booked with Zibby Owens * A Fallon Book Club Pick

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.

Creators
- Fredrik Backman
  
  Author
Publisher

Atria Books
Release date

May 6, 2025
Formats
- Kindle Book
- OverDrive Read
  - ISBN: 9781982112844
- EPUB ebook
  - ISBN: 9781982112844
  - File size: 3542 KB
Accessibility
Publisher statement (EPUB)
The publisher provides the following statement about the accessibility of the EPUB file supplied to OverDrive. Experiences may vary across reading systems. After borrowing the book, you may download the EPUB files to read in another reading system.

Summary

A publication with images and logos, converted to meet EPUB Accessibility specifications of WCAG-AA level. This book contains various accessibility features such as alternative text for images and logos, table of contents, page-list, landmark, reading order, structural navigation, and semantic structure. Blank pages from print have been removed in this ebook, with related page number spans set on the first following in-spine page. Certain front and back matter pages have been adjusted in the reading order sequence from print, with related page references reordered in the page-list order.
Ways Of Reading
- Appearance of the text and page layout can be modified according to the capabilities of the reading system (font family and font size, spaces between paragraphs, sentences, words, and letters, as well as color of background and text).
- All content can be read as read aloud speech or dynamic braille.
- Has alternative text descriptions for images.
Conformance
- The publication contains a conformance statement that it meets the EPUB Accessibility and WCAG 2 Level AA standard.
- This publication claims to meet EPUB Accessibility 1.1 WCAG 2.2 Level AA.
Navigation
- Table of contents to all chapters of the text via links.
- Elements such as headings, tables, etc for structured navigation.
Additional Information
- Page breaks included
- High contrast between text and background
Languages
- English
Reviews
- Library Journal
  
  January 1, 2025
  Bestselling Backman, whose A Man Called Ove was turned into a movie starring Tom Hanks, returns with a tale of four teenage friends depicted in a painting. Artist Louisa ends up with the portrait 25 years later and decides to find out the story behind the canvas. Prepub Alert.
  Copyright 2025 Library Journal
  
  Copyright 2025 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
- Booklist
  
  Starred review from May 1, 2025
  Free of the foster-care system now that she's 18, Louisa is truly homeless, but she carries a postcard of one of the world's most famous paintings in her backpack for comfort and inspiration. Louisa is an aspiring artist, her sketch pads filled with drawings of cockroaches so beautiful they should be called butterflies. A chance meeting with a frail and dying man propels Louisa on an unimaginable journey as her postcard talisman almost literally comes to life. Lost within the panorama of the painting's seascape are the images of three teens seated at the end of a pier. Now, 25 years after the painting's creation, one of those teens comes to rescue Louisa and quite possibly himself in the process. What Backman did for curmudgeonly seniors in his beloved debut, A Man Called Ove (2014), he now does for obstreperous teens; namely, he renders them lovable beyond all reason. Their quirks, their fears, their bravado, their vulnerability all come blazing through, exploding in isolated episodes of candor and harrowing moments of defensiveness. Irrepressible humor, boundless grief, and eternal loyalty coalesce in Backman's tribute to youthful imagination and unfettered faith in art's power to heal and nurture.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Best-selling Backman's fans will be primed and intrigued by this fresh focus.
  COPYRIGHT(2025) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
- Kirkus
  
  Starred review from August 1, 2025
  An artwork's value grows if you understand the stories of the people who inspired it. Never in her wildest dreams would foster kid Louisa dream of meeting C. Jat, the famous painter ofThe One of the Sea, which depicts a group of young teens on a pier on a hot summer's day. But in Backman's latest, that's just what happens--an unexpected (but not unbelievable) set of circumstances causes their paths to collide right before the dying 39-year-old artist's departure from the world. One of his final acts is to bequeath that painting to Louisa, who has endured a string of violent foster homes since her mother abandoned her as a child. Selling the painting will change her life--but can she do it? Before deciding, she accompanies Ted, one of the artist's close friends and one of the young teens captured in that celebrated painting, on a train journey to take the artist's ashes to his hometown. She wants to know all about the painting, which launched Jat's career at age 14, and the circle of beloved friends who inspired it. The bestselling author ofA Man Called Ove (2014) and other novels, Backman gives us a heartwarming story about how these friends, set adrift by the violence and unhappiness of their homes, found each other and created a new definition of family. "You think you're alone," one character explains, "but there are others like you, people who stand in front of white walls and blank paper and only see magical things. One day one of them will recognize you and call out: 'You're one of us!'" As Ted tells stories about his friends--how Jat doubted his talents but found a champion in fiery Joar, who took on every bully to defend him; how Ali brought an excitement to their circle that was "like a blinding light, like a heart attack"--Louisa recognizes herself as a kindred soul and feels a calling to realize her own artistic gifts. What she decides to do with the painting is part of a caper worthy of the stories that Ted tells her. The novel is humorous, poignant, and always life-affirming, even when describing the bleakness of the teens' early lives. "Art is a fragile magic, just like love," as someone tells Louisa, "and that's humanity's only defense against death." A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.
  COPYRIGHT(2025) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
- Good Reading Magazine
  
  Told in Backman’s distinct style, this is the story of Louisa, a young runaway artist who meets her idol at an art show featuring one of his famous paintings. The painting is composed of three teenagers sitting at the end of a pier. Soon after the artist dies Louisa learns he has bequeathed this painting to her.s It is delivered to her by his lifelong friend, Ted. The two form an unlikely duo as they set off by train to sell the painting. During the eventful journey, Ted tells the young artist the story of how the artwork came to be, of the life of these friends, and of that summer spent at a pier together. Ultimately, it is the story of three very different teenagers and the power of that friendship. It sounds simple, but of course it isn’t. It’s wrapped in sadness and laughter, insights into human behaviour, with some surprising twists along the way. It transported me to the pier and into these characters’ lives, but it also had me reflecting on my own life, thinking of my friends from my youth and how they shaped me. My Friends is quintessential Backman, one of my most favourite authors. He has a certain writing style, where he drip-feeds information and circles back on things, all with a very distinct type of humour. Although, this style can become repetitive if you read his books too closely together. He also has a way of writing a line or paragraph that so perfectly reflects the human condition, often prompting tears or goosebumps. While this wasn’t my favourite book of his, I still enjoyed it immensely with an ending I loved. Reviewed by Sarah Kraus Read a book review of Anxious People by Fredrik Backman ABOUT THE AUTHOR Fredrik Backman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, Britt-Marie Was Here, Beartown, Us Against You, Anxious People, The Winners, My Friends, as well as two novellas and one work of nonfiction. His books are published in more than forty countries. He lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with his wife and two children. Follow Fredrik Backman on Instagram
- BookPage
  
  There’s not a lot of beauty in Louisa’s world. She’s on the run from her foster home, a day away from her 18th birthday. Her best friend recently died, and the adults in their lives chalked it up as a predictable outcome for kids like them. Life hasn’t treated her well, but Louisa carries a bit of beauty everywhere she goes: a postcard of the painting “The One of the Sea” by artist C. Jat. Most people are distracted by the title and the painting’s swaths of blue. But Louisa has gazed at her reproduction long enough to see something more. Tucked into the sea is a pier with three children sitting on it, vibrating with laughter. Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, dreams of not only being able to capture a moment that way but also of meeting the artist and hearing the story of those friends. After she sneaks into an art auction to see the painting in person, Louisa’s ambitions are fulfilled in ways she couldn’t possibly have imagined. Bestselling novelist Fredrik Backman (A Man Called Ove, Anxious People) has built his career with idiosyncratic characters in stories that demolish a reader’s heart before stitching it back together. My Friends may be the pinnacle of Backman’s heartbreaking powers. His writing is as smooth as ever, drawing readers into Louisa’s story with the easy ebb and flow of waves dissolving onto a shore. But this gentle storytelling belies the very real, deep struggles Backman’s characters face. My Friends is chock-full of observations that made this reviewer put down the novel to catch her breath: “Being human is to grieve, constantly.” “Art teaches us to mourn for strangers.” “Art is coping with being alive for one more week.” “The most dangerous place on earth is inside us.” In My Friends, Backman again pays tribute to the forces that make an ordinary life extraordinary. By focusing his tremendous empathy on the power of art and friendship, he has created a novel that celebrates the beauty of being alive.