#1 New York Times bestselling author 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 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.
Book Info: Print length: 448 pages. Publisher: Simon & Schuster. Publication Date: 19 June 2025. Listening Length: 13 hours and 7 minutes. Narrator: Marin Ireland.
My Thoughts:
Fredrik Backman is my go-to author for Audible Books because listening to how the book should be read is like putting on your favourite pair of pyjamas, sipping a creamy hot chocolate and snuggling into a comfortable armchair. Delicious, delightful and decadent.
Fans of Backman will know what a pleasure it is to enter his literary imagination and meet the many wonderful and different characters who inhabit his mind.
My Friends is a tender, emotional, compassionate multilayed novel that whisks the reader/listener on a journey that will make you cry, smile, sob, laugh, grieve and hope throughout.
The story has a beautiful dual timeline intertwining past and present following a group of teenagers who forge an unlikely bond during one summer 25 years ago and the present day where we meet Louisa, a young and aspiring artist who has run away from a care home after suffering tragedy and loss throughout her life.
I’m not going to go on much more, because my thoughts won’t give this simply beautiful book the credit it deserves, so just take my word for it. Buy it, read it, listen to it and thank me later.
