My Friends

I get it now. The hype over Fredrik Backman is real, and in the case of this book - my first of his  - it’s well deserved! It’ll be in my year-end favorites.

Many authors can write a decent, well-written book that can hold my interest, but then there are those special few, like him, who capture my imagination with rich, immersive storytelling that leaves me hanging on their every word, creating the kind of memories that remind me why I love reading. 

Louisa is a day away from eighteen, having spent her life in foster care. She hasn’t loved many things, but one thing she does love is art. When she finds herself in front of one the world’s most famous paintings “The One of the Sea” that depicts three friends hanging out on the end of a pier, a misunderstanding finds her running from security and straight into the path of the artist who painted it. That simple moment will change her life in unforeseeable ways and introduce her to the much bigger story of how that painting came to be and the friendship between the artist and the three teens he painted years ago.

When I first read that premise it didn’t exactly excite me. I couldn’t see how a painting would be a sufficient plot device to carry an entire story, plus stories about kids and teens are hit or miss for me. I shouldn’t have doubted. In Backman’s capable hands, I fell in love with the stories, both present and past, of Louisa, “the artist” (as he’s referred to for most of the book) and his friends Ted, Joar and Ali, all of whom are fascinating characters in their own right.

This is the kind of found family story that reminds you that life often provides exactly what and WHO you need in your life just when you need it most. All these characters experienced some of the worst sides of humanity, yet together they found what their own families couldn’t give them - a safe space for them to be the truest version of themselves and to create moments of joy in a place that didn’t have much of it to offer.

This was an immersion read while listening along to the audio narrated by Marin Ireland, who’s always a treasure in her own right. If you want a story that hits all the emotional notes in perfect balance and leaves you with a sense of hope and optimism about humanity, then this is worth your time. I don’t really have a bad thing to say about this book, but if I had to give any critical feedback at all, I’d suggest Backman cool it a little with the farts. IFYKYK. (Don’t be scared!)

★★★★★ ❤

Thanks to Libby and my library for the ebook and audiobook. This is out now.