My Friends

My Friends is a solid addition to Backman’s catalogue—full of likeable characters, found family, and the kind of emotional insights he does so well. It didn’t quite hit the same heights for me as A Man Called Ove, but it’s still warm, well-written, and quietly moving.

Backman remains very good at reminding you that people are complicated, a bit messy, and worth caring about anyway.

I have a like/love relationship with Fredrick Backman’s books. Some I like, some I like a lot, some I love, and some just blow me out of the water. “My Friends” has me catapulting up and out of the sea. It is rare that I drop everything to review a book shortly after finishing it but this book is that good that everyone should know and be able to get a copy.

His characters are amazing, damaged, big of heart, genius, sensitive, creative, intelligent beyond their years and often hilarious. Each is perfectly drawn. They are capable of plotting perfect plans that unravel because the plotting comes from a brain that is in equal measures genius and non-genius. They are so fortunate that they can run really fast. Their adventures defy show more everything, absolutely everything. They are carried by their belief in each other. They are everything to each other. They became everything to me. How did Backman create this extraordinary story that grabs at you from every direction?

I laughed really hard but I hurt equally because that is the perfect balance that Backman has created. He takes so much with anger, violence and deprivation but gives so much back with insight and humor and each share space on so many pages. Excellent, brilliant, extraordinary writing with dialog that captures emotions that can rip you to shreds one minute and have you choking with laughter a second later. This is not just a 2025 favorite but an all time favorite deserving of all the stars, accolades and bravos.

A million thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for a copy. show less

Louisa, eighteen, has grown up in various foster homes. She is grieving the loss of her friend and her only comfort is a postcard of a painting, The One of the Sea. When she learns it is being auctioned off, she goes to see it. As she stares, transfixed at it, she’s drawn to three figures in the corner of the painting and knows they, not the sea, are the real focus, of the painting.

In the past, four young friends had been drawn together by their otherness. Of the four, one is a shy but gifted artist and another, Joar, has been his protector since they were five. He has found an article about an art competition and is determined the young artist must submit a painting. The artist is reluctant but Joar is determined he do it because he show more is afraid that, without pushing, the artist will never achieve the life he deserves. The artist finally gives in and the result is stunning in its beauty.

I have read every one of Fredrik Backman’s books and have loved them all but My Friends is, by far, my favourite. It is a beautifully written tale, poignant, often humorous, both heartbreaking and heartwarming, of art, friendship, grief, families, and finding your people. I found myself wanting to hurry to see what would happen but, at the same time, wanting to read slowly, to savour it. This is a book I know I will read over and over, finding more to love about it every time.

I received this book from Netgalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review show less

In the present day, Louisa is almost 18 and aging out of the foster care system, fiercely awkward and fiercely intelligent, and carrying very little in the world except a postcard of a painting she has kept for years. The painting is called On the Sea by the artist C. Jat — one of the most famous works in the world — and most people see it as a beautiful depiction of the ocean. Louisa knows it isn't. She can see three tiny figures at the end of a pier, laughing, and she has always been desperate to know who they were. She crashes a church auction to get near the painting, causes absolute chaos, and while fleeing collides with a small, clearly ill man and his ginger cat. He turns out to be one of the people who matters most to this show more story.
Twenty-five years earlier, in a seaside town, four misfit teenagers with difficult home lives find each other on an abandoned pier. There's Joar, who fights everyone; quiet Ted, who is grieving his father; Ali, whose father is always moving them on to a new town; and the artist — a boy known as KimKim — who hoards sleeping pills, stays out of the spotlight, and has a beauty inside him that one reviewer called an act of rebellion. Together on that pier, telling terrible jokes and protecting each other from their respective bruising worlds, they become the truest friends any of them will ever have. The novel is full of Backman's signature one-liners about humanity, grief, and the small rebellions of being alive.

[May contain spoilers]
The ill man Louisa collides with is the adult Ted — and he is dying. KimKim (whose professional name C. Jat is a tribute to Christian, a janitor who taught him to paint, plus the initials of his friends: Joar, Ali, Ted) has already reached out to Ted before he dies to set something in motion for Louisa. The painting isn't about the sea at all — it's about that pier, those friends, and contains a private joke between them that involves a fart, which Backman renders genuinely moving. Ted takes Louisa on a train journey back to where it all happened, and the two storylines converge as Louisa discovers not just the story of the painting but something about chosen family, belonging, and what it means to be seen. There's a subplot about the friends sneaking KimKim's art into a museum after discovering he's aged out of an art competition. The ending is emotional in a deeply satisfying rather than crushing way — very Backman. show less

My Friends by Fredrik Backman is a masterclass in emotional storytelling, brimming with humor, heartbreak, hope, and above all, humanity. This book left a deep imprint on my heart. I laughed, I cried, and I often had to pause just to breathe through the weight of what I was feeling. Backman has once again proven that he understands people, flawed, fragile, resilient people, better than almost any writer I know.

Friendship is so important, and My Friends is a moving celebration of how friendships can save us.

At the center of the novel is Louisiana, an aspiring artist whose personality shines with wit and raw honesty. Her grief after losing her best friend, combined with the instability of life in foster care, broke my heart. But show more Louisa’s creativity, her courage, and her strange, beautiful way of seeing the world were magnetic. She made me laugh out loud, even when I was crying. She’s a reminder that even the most damaged people can be a light to others.

I also loved seeing how Ted, initially so closed off, slowly opened up under Louisiana’s influence. Their friendship grew into something transformative, not flashy or dramatic, but deeply real and redemptive.

Then there’s C. Jat, or Kimkim, the artist whose work echoes the emotional turmoil and unspoken struggles of those around him. His presence in the story, though quieter, is powerful. Through his art, he communicates the things that words sometimes fail to express. Kimkim’s journey made me reflect on the way creative expression can offer sanctuary, especially for those who feel unseen or misunderstood.

Joar’s story broke me in a different way. His struggle with the legacy of an abusive parent is handled with such grace and truth. Backman never flinches from the pain, but he also doesn’t define Joar by his trauma. Instead, he allows Joar space to struggle, to be angry, to seek understanding, and eventually to begin the slow, painful work of healing. Joar’s pain felt so real, and so did the glimmers of hope that started to shine through as the story unfolded.

Backman has a rare ability to make every character matter. Each one feels like a fully formed person with their own story, voice, and heart. My Friends is more than just a novel, it’s a tribute to the messy, beautiful relationships that keep us going. To the power of friendship, art, and empathy. To the idea that no one is too far gone to be reached.

This book reminded me that even when life is heavy, we’re not alone. There’s always someone, maybe an old friend, maybe someone new, willing to sit beside us in the dark and wait for the light to return.

Nicole Cervone show less

My Friends by Fredrik Backman is an exceptional, heartbreaking, humorous, very highly recommended story of friendship, art, trust, and finding your people. This is a masterpiece and certainly will be the best book I've read this year, perhaps even over several years. Admittedly, I am a long time admirer of Backman's work but My Friends is a life-list book.

An artist's first painting, “The One of the Sea,” is being sold and eighteen-year-old Louisa needs to see the painting for her own reasons. Her best friend Fish recently died and Louisa knows that the painting isn't about the sea, it's about the small group of friends on a dock in the corner of the painting. Circumstances result into her running from a security guard and crashing show more into a homeless man in the alley. Only he isn't homeless, he is the artist of “The One of the Sea” who calls himself C. Jat, and he is dying.

In the hospital later the artist tells Ted about Louisa and proclaims "She's one of us!" The us is the group of four friends, the friends in the painting from twenty-five years earlier and the ones he knew at fourteen and fifteen, when he painted “The One of the Sea.” These friends are Joar, Ted, Ali, and the artist. The artist, who had Ted buy his painting back, tells Ted to give the painting to Louisa and this leads to the two embarking on a cross country trip where she learns about the friends and how they saved each other from their bruising home lives and in school.

The dual timeline works perfectly in My Friends. The present day is Louisa and Ted on their trip while Ted tells the story of when they were teens in a working class neighborhood and how they helped each other survive. Louisa talks about how Fish helped her survive. The story is emotional and I was tearing up and openly crying throughout. Their interactions can also be humorous. These young characters went through so much. He points out that the world has spent thousands of years practicing how to puncture the lungs of children who are different.

The characters come to life under his careful, compassionate, and insightful portrayal. They are all fully realized individuals with vulnerabilities, strengths and weaknesses. These teens know that they can love and trust each other, which is a combination that can be difficult to find in life. They took care of their friendship and helped the artist survive being different while encouraging his artistic pursuits.

As Backman notes several times in the well-written narrative that, the most dangerous place on earth is inside us. He writes: No one can explain why some fourteen-year-olds want to die. Nature gains nothing from unhappy children, yet they are still walking around everywhere, without the words to describe their anxiety. Also that a "Lack of self confidence is a devastating virus. There is no cure."

There is a plethora of observations about what art is and there were so many quotes I saved. A few examples: Art teaches us to mourn for strangers, isn't chronological, is what we leave of ourselves in other people, and art doesn't need critics, art has enough enemies already. Art needs friends.

My Friends is a must read book that is sure to become a classic, on many lists of one of the best books ever, and a top book club choice. Thanks to Atria Books for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2025/04/my-friends.html show less

"Twenty-five years later, he still wishes the same thing, that he was fourteen years old, and that the world was full of broken clocks."

My Friends, by Fredrik Backman, is a beautiful, tender and painful (yes, beautiful, yet mostly painful) story written to quietly wreck you. It’s about friendship and art... and some memories. Memories and stories of childhood.

It’s about Louisa, a young artist, a teenage orphaned artist obsessed with a decades-old painting of a sea. And to understand the story behind, she takes a journey into the lives of a group of friends who once spent a summer by that very sea... loving, hurting, growing up, falling apart.

The story has two timelines – the past, where the once-young painter of the sea lives with show more his friends; and the present, where Louisa is listening to the past stories from one of the friends.

It doesn’t have any twists at all, not in conventional terms at least. But it does have lots of secrets, lost tales that might remind you of your own younger self. Your own friends. At points, it made me so sentimental that I started missing school friends that I didn’t have.

The book is hilarious and heartbreaking all at once. It’s about life and living it. And it’s classic Backman: funny without being goofy, deep without trying too hard.

Backman has his way with words, with repetitions... letting the characters ramble, somehow finding a way to punch your emotions out.

Some parts did feel a little stretched... but by the end, I didn’t want it to end. My Friends is a book, a story, a group of characters... that you’ll like to grieve at the end. No, no, no, it’s a happy story. But you’ll cry.

It’s recommended for artists and fans of slow, slice-of-life literary fiction. It’s recommended if you aren’t afraid to cry, and if you still carry old friendships.

You should sit with a box of tissues while reading it. And a trash can to throw them all in. show less