Book Review: My Friends by Fredrik Backman
About the book
The beautiful new novel that will make you laugh and cry, from the global bestselling author of Anxious People and A Man Called Ove.
'You have to take life for granted, the artist thinks, the whole thing: sunrises and slow Sunday mornings and water balloons and another person’s breath against your neck. That’s the only courageous thing a person can do.'
In the corner of a world-famous painting, three tiny figures sit on the end of a pier, a secret hidden in plain sight.
Twenty-five years ago, a group of teenagers found solace in each other during one unforgettable summer. Their friendship inspired a transcendent work of art, a painting that now mysteriously belongs to eighteen-year-old aspiring artist Louisa.
Driven to learn the story behind its creation, Louisa embarks on a journey to the seaside town where it all began.
But as she gets closer to the painting’s birthplace, Louisa learns that happy endings do not always take the form we expect.
Fredrik Backman 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 years later.
Why we love it
I'm not entirely immune to a novel with an emotional punch and will freely admit to sobbing into a cushion over many a book, but this is possibly the first time I've been reduced to tears within the very first chapter. Then laughter. Then more tears. Then more laughter. And so on.
This is a truly special kind of book. Thoughtful and intimate, it's a novel about the lasting impact of true friendship and genuine human connection - with the occasional fart joke thrown in for good measure.
When eighteen-year-old Louisa, newly homeless after aging out of foster care and losing her best friend, has a chance encounter with a famous artist, he unexpectedly leaves her one of his most celebrated paintings - a painting of his childhood friends by the sea.
To understand why it was left to her, Louisa sets off on a cross-country journey with Ted, friend of the artist and one of the figures depicted within the painting, back to the seaside town where those friendships first began.
Written across two timelines, past and present, this isn't a book that's filled with dramatic plot twists and intrigue. Instead it's a story built on all the small, seemingly insignificant moments that form the basis of the strongest relationships - the shared laughter, comfortable silences, inside jokes and innate understanding that exists only between true kindred spirits.
Fredrik Backman has an incredible knack for pulling readers inside his characters’ heads, letting us see what they love, what they fear and all the secret private thoughts they rarely say out loud. These are flawed characters but authentic ones, shaped by their relationship with each other and by their experiences of a life which is rarely fair and often cruel.
The novel constantly moves between moments of joy and sorrow, often blending both together within the same paragraph to reflect the messy contradiction of life, where tragedy and laughter go hand in hand.
It's just the most genuinely wonderful and unforgettable book - almost simplistic in tone and style and yet every sentence somehow manages to be profoundly impactful. A real sucker-punch of a book and I loved every word of it. Thoroughly recommended!
