Backman has written yet ANOTHER classic. The story begins with Louisa, her best friend, and her love of a painting. The story progressed towards meeting the artist and learning the story behind the painting. The major themes of art, childhood woes, and friendship. This book made me laugh, cry, and gave me hope. Thank you for sharing, it's a lifechanging book!

Story of grief and survival and the importance of friendship. Thankful for the bits of holier to lighten up parts of this emotional read.

Thank you for the ARC. I’ve seen so many great things about this authors work so of course I requested this one.

This was my first Backman book and I enjoyed it. It's a thought-provoking story about friends, family, art, and death. It has humorous and tear-jerking moments. The characters are well-developed. Backman is an excellent writer and navigates the past and present very well.

Well, well… reach into my chest and yank out my heart.

I fully believe (and tell everyone willing to listen to me go on and on) that Backman’s books are aging like fine wine. Exquisite. Rich. Decedent. Superb!!

My Friends is a story for all of us. It’s pure teenage summers with innocence rolled up tightly in love, loss, and lots of shenanigans.

The story follows a young runaway who happens to come across a famous painting where she develops a deep curiosity of the three friends painted on the pier, overlooking the sea. Over a few days, her journey leads her back to what happened to those best friends and that one summer twenty-five years ago. She will never be the same after she learns of the whole, true story.

Backman’s style is present in the characters’ back-and-forth banter, quippy comebacks, and deep, gut-wrenching prose when you can’t help but love someone so much it hurts.

I highlighted so many lines in this book. It hit so good.

I can’t decide now which is my favorite, Beartown trilogy or My Friends.

Backman’s books, to me, are like Pokémon. Gotta catch them all!!

Thank you @atriabooks and @netgalley for an Advance Readers Copy. All opinions are my own.

thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the advanced digital copy! I loved this book. My first reading of this author and I really enjoyed it! It brought back memories of my childhood and I resonated with all of the characters. The writing was excellent. I laughed out loud multiple times, which hasn't happened to me in awhile. I loved the quotes and references to art and how life-altering and healing it can be. So much humanity shined through. It was just such an honest and open take on childhood, adulting, and navigating the complexities of growing up, as well as honoring art and it's ability to heal and transport us! I can't say enough about this, it just felt deeply personal and absolutely relatable. I can't wait to recommend this title to readers!

I think this is my favorite Fredrik Backman book. It's a story about friendships, old and new, and the importance of art in today's world. I laughed and cried and reread passages again and again to savor Backman's understanding of human nature. I can't get this story out of my mind.

Thank you, Atria books and Net Galley for an advanced coy of this literary gem.

From the publisher: 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.

My Friends is a rollercoaster, of joy, pain, anxiety, loss, beauty, and most of all friendship. It was so intense at times that I had to set it aside for a bit, and yet, truly, nothing much happens. An adult tells a teenager he has just met about his childhood friends. That’s what this book is about.

And yet that’s totally not what this book is about. Backman excels at making me care about people who would drive me crazy in real life. The author suffers from anxiety and it permeates everything he writes to the point that it makes me as the reader anxious. The focus is on the summer the four young friends were 14. They and the teenager in the present are neglected, abused, bullied, and in pain. They are also talented and loyal. Their friendships are beautiful; their lives are not.

My Friends is also about art, and how powerful and even life saving art can be. Because I know Backman does not spare his characters pain, I was nervous the entire time I was reading the book. There were a couple of true surprises for me. I never know where he is going. Backman drops a lot of hints about what’s coming, and he is good at dropping hints that are accurate and yet deceitful.

Backman is a must-read author for me, and My Friends did not disappoint. Translated works often lose something in the translation. I don’t think that’s the case with Backman. It’s amazing how he phrases things sometimes, like this quote: “Ted evades her gaze like a silverfish beneath a bathroom lamp that’s just been switched on.” (ch. 10 of the advance reader copy) The comparison makes me shudder but also completely understand what’s happening.

I’m not sure I understood the significance of some of the secrets the author kept until the end or near the end. I definitely need to read the book again once it is published, and I hope a movie is in the works.

I do not love the cover; I really wish the cover showed the painting that is a character in the book, but I guess they were afraid they couldn’t do it justice.

I read an advance reader copy of My Friends from NetGalley. It is scheduled to be published on June 17 [and will be available for checkout at the Galesburg Public Library in multiple formats.]

Fredrik Backman’s writing is so strong, rich in emotions and artistic wonder, that the characters felt like old friends. A story about love, grief, hope, and found family amidst tragic circumstances, this book will remind you how we all longed for the enduring childhood friendships like Ted, Joar, the artist, Ali, and Louisa and when you turn the last page, you will miss them as if they, too, were your best friends. Told in gripping brevity and raw honesty, this book will become a favorite, a comparative title readers use when they speak about great friendship stories.

This was my first Backman novel, and I was thoroughly impressed with it. It's a thought-provoking story about friends, family, art, and death. It has humorous and tear-jerking moments. The characters are well-developed, and I enjoyed getting to know Louisa and Ted more as they made their journey. Backman is an excellent writer and navigates the past and present flawlessly. An immensely enjoyable read.

An amazing read, not that I expected it to be anything less. One of my go to authors. Heartwarming, a great tale of friendship and emotional as always. I will always pick up a book with his name on the cover.

I will read anything by Backman! He is a master story teller. Nobody writes flawed and real characters quite like him. My Friends made me laugh, cry, broke my heart and put it back together again. Thank you NetGalley and Atria books for the ARC!

This book is not for me, but it had Backman’s usual easy to read and humorous writing style. I think fans of his work will enjoy the new book, even if I don’t think I enjoyed it too much. Would recommend it to my patrons though!

A memorable, very touching about growing up and growing older and eventually wiser. Backmans books are always a great read

A very thought provoking story that links 2 very different lives together. A share interest in a painting link the artist’s friends to a young homeless girl. They both have stories to share and to build together. Quite a bit of humor in this book. So much talk about farts.

I absolutely love Frederik Backmann books! This follows teenagers with close friendship and how their relationship impacts a stranger's life.

Fredrik Backman has been and will always be an immediate read for me. Something about his writing always makes me feel all the feelings and is such a unique reading experience. I know it’s not for everyone, but I encourage everyone to at least read one book just to say you did it and feel the magic.

Backman does such an amazing job of humanizing the hooligans and youths that I get annoyed with scampering around the neighborhood. He makes me feel like they’re all my best friends and I suddenly have so much compassion for them and their stories.

This whole book spans over less than a week, but I feel like Ted and Louisa lives a thousand lives. Backman touches on grief, friendship, found family, belonging, expressing yourself, and sooo many other beautiful themes in these pages.

Synopsis: A girl with no family and a man with the best of friends are forced together on a journey that both propels them toward their future while simultaneously causing them to relive their past.

While these two unlikely companions are polar opposites, they share a mutual admiration for art (and one artist, in particular) and an understanding that friends can turn into family and arrive (and, tragically, exit) our lives when we least expect them (and when we need them most.)

Review: Backman has the ability to serve up the most beautiful, tender moments of life but also the most raw, heart-wrenching, unjust moments, too. This book is no exception.

I couldn't scarf this book down quickly. No, I had to savor it slowly, even though it hurt sometimes. Even though I had a lump in my throat and in my heart almost the entire time. I had to read it slowly because the best things take time, and Backman is the best (but also kind of the worst because of the whole lump-in-my-throat situation (but mostly the best)).

While I did have that lump wedged in my esophagus, I also had a smile on my lips, and tears in my eyes. How does that even happen? How can I experience so many important emotions simultaneously?

I think that happens when you read a book about art and you actually realize what you're reading is, well, art.

If you love Backman's writing, you will love this. Long sentences, lots of detail, heartwarming sentences you want to copy into your heart, with lovable characters who are tough and gruff, but inside just want to be loved and loved. The insights on humans and their relationships is just amazing. It did take me a bit to get into this tory--but once I was in, I loved every single page. Loved the connections the characters made, how the story unfolded slowly, and how much you rooted for and wanted everything for these characters. He's a library genius, really.

My Friends by Fredrik Backman is a heartfelt and emotional journey about friendship, trauma, and the power of connection. The book shifts between two timelines—one full of the messy, adventurous, and sometimes tough moments of adolescence, and the other focusing on life’s endings and new beginnings. The adolescent timeline really gave me Goonies vibes, with its mix of excitement, mischief, and deep, unshakeable friendships.

Backman does what he does best: creates complex, relatable characters whose struggles feel real and raw. You can’t help but root for them, even when things are tough. There’s also this perfect balance of humor throughout that lightens the heavier moments, giving the story an emotional depth without feeling too heavy.

If you love Backman’s other books, My Friends is another gem. It’s a warm, emotional read that’s both funny and deeply moving, and it’ll make you think about your own friendships in the best way.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy.

This was such a great and emotional read. Anything Backman writes I will read, he can do no wrong in his books. Thank you net galley for the arc.