I’m very lucky to be sent lots of wonderful books so it’s very rare that I actually ask for a book just for me and not for ‘work’. However, when I saw the fabulous Simon and Schuster Christmas Gift Guide contained the latest novel from a favourite author, I simply couldn’t resist requesting My Friends by Fredrick Backman and my enormous thanks go to Tomisin Delano for sending me a copy.
Fredrik Backman was the first author I ever met over a decade ago when A Man Called Ove was published and you’ll find his other appearances on Linda’s Book Bag with my reviews here.
Out now in hardback, ebook and audio, from Simon and Schuster and coming in paperback on 12th February 2026, My Friends is available for purchase through the links here.
My Friends
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 one of the most famous paintings in the world three tiny figures sit at the end of a pier. Most people don’t even notice them. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise.
Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers seek refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days together. They tell jokes, they share secrets, and they commit 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 18-year-old Louisa’s care. Determined to learn how it came to be and to decide what to do with it, Louisa embarks on a cross-country journey. But the closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more nervous she becomes.
In this stunning testament to the transformative, timeless power of friendship and art, Louisa is proof that happy endings don’t always take the form we expect.
My Review of My Friends
Louisa wants to see a painting.
Oh dear. That’s every book for the rest of the year ruined! I absolutely, unconditionally adored My Friends – and given I had unreasonably high expectations of a book from Fredrik Backman, that’s saying something. It’s actually impossible to convey just how this story affected me and resonated so deeply within me.
The essence of the plot is relatively simple. Two strangers share confidences on a train – in much the same way many folk do. And that’s what’s so important. Much of the narrative considers the ordinariness of life, with the deepest of meaning coming from things we ignore, the things we don’t say and or do, every bit as much – if not more – than those we do. Fredrik Backman looks deep into the heart of humanity and lays it bare in the most stunning read. There’s something here any reader can relate to, so that reading My Friends is the most amazing oxymoronic blend. One moment I was crying with laughter, often because of the dialogue, and the next I was sobbing with emotion. Frequently I was doing both simultaneously so that I simply wasn’t in control of my own emotions, as a result of the wonderful writing. There were so many passages where I felt the author articulated flawlessly exactly what I thought or have experienced, making me wonder if he had access to my soul. Having said all that, there are moments in the plot where I was completely taken aback by their unexpectedness. This aspect of the writing is brilliant.
The characters are superb. The concept of finding those to whom we belong, the depiction of teenagers and the profound understanding of the lost, the different, and the emotionally and physically broken, is a total triumph. As Louisa hears Ted’s stories, she gradually gets to know the others and I thought it was wonderful the way the artist’s name is not revealed until Louisa has a sense of who he truly is.
Louisa herself is the most pitch-perfect blend of intelligence and naivety, of strength and vulnerability, of loquaciousness and internal thought. I’d defy anyone not to believe in her wholeheartedly. I loved Ted unconditionally too. He is a wonderful lynchpin between past and present, and between the friends. Not artistically talented like the artist, not insanely determined like Joar, nor feisty like Ali, he is, nonetheless, vital to their lives. I wept with and for him. I laughed alongside him.
I thought the opaqueness of the setting was magnificent because it makes My Friends so relatable. This narrative could be taking place in any country. There are universally recognisable elements like supermarkets, the coast, schools and railway stations, ensuring that readers can place themselves within the action and engaging them further – if that were possible!
In case it isn’t clear, I thought My Friends was fabulous. Filled with tenderness and human understanding, My Friends is a love letter to art, friendship and what constitutes home. My Friends is, for me, sheer, unmissable perfection. I loved it beyond measure and cannot recommend it highly enough.
About Fredrik Backman
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.
For further information, Find Fredrik Backman on Facebook or follow him on Twitter/X @BackmanLand and Instagram.
English (US) · 