Wow. Fredrik Backman has a way of describing emotions and feelings in a way that most people should not be able to understand without his explanation. This books found family touched me at my core. The generational connection is something that often times is not done to my liking, but the order of events helps the reader connect to each character as they influence the plot points. Every character has a trait that I connect to which I further appreciate. Fredrik Backman was already my favourite author, but this book went above and beyond with proving that. Will be recommending to everyone.

Before I declare this the best book Fredrik Backman has ever written, let me admit that I’ve lost count of how many times I cried, laughed too loudly (scaring the pets), or whined and howled while reading it. Nothing I say—no word I write—can adequately capture my feelings or do justice to this incredible book, even if I endlessly repeat the word "amazing" over and over again. My best advice? Don’t just read it and marvel at Backman’s brilliance. Instead, prepare to wipe your tears after finishing, and if you’re lucky enough to have people in your life like the characters in this book, call your best friends—the ones who helped shape you—and tell them, “I love you and I trust you.” If you can, visit them and give them the longest hugs, which is exactly what I plan to do.

This book is about an endless sea, a profound friendship, and a true love story. It delves into grief, sacrifice, fart jokes, uproarious laughter, spontaneous adventures, learning to trust, and protecting loved ones at all costs. It’s about the serendipity of art. It’s about finding your own pearl in an oyster shell and learning to let go, even when it feels like shards of glass stabbing your heart.

I haven’t read a friendship story this genuine, heartfelt, clumsy, straightforward, smart, sentimental, shocking, and emotionally resonant in a very long time.

Joar: A “big little man” with the sharpest sarcastic humor, a kind heart brimming with love for his mother, a fighter, protector, and a sailor with a penchant for perfectly timed swearing anecdotes.

Ali: Tough as nails, quick-witted, and fiercely independent, she uses her sharp tongue and street smarts to shield herself from the harm of violent men. She’s the creator of the worst ideas, a good runner, and a terrible swimmer.

Ted: A mostly introverted, bookish soul who collects words like treasures, using them to craft brilliant stories. He’s caring, quirky, smart, and sensitive, learning to honor the ghosts of his past by saying goodnight to them—just like his father once did.

The Artist (KimKim): A prodigy who sketches the laughter of his friends while embodying the vastness of the sea and sky. A man of few words, he battles his depression by embracing his uniqueness, just as his mother taught him, and prepares himself for his long-short journey through life.

These four vagabonds met nearly a decade ago when they were just 15, united by their desire to help the artist attend a painting competition—even though he couldn’t afford supplies like paint, brushes, or canvas. Despite their own struggles and the harsh hands life had dealt them, they were resourceful and unstoppable as long as they had each other.

Two decades later, the artist literally bumps into young Louisa, a quirky, awkward, fiercely intelligent girl raised in foster care, as she flees the church where his painting was auctioned. Realizing her obsession with seeing the painting in person, he instantly recognizes her as one of them. He devises a plan and enlists Ted to carry it out before he leaves this earth. That’s how Louisa becomes intertwined in their love story and discovers the real meaning behind the painting, On the Sea—a work that isn’t about the sea at all but about the depth of friendship and, yes, a funny fart!

I won’t spoil more of the story. This is a tale where every character shines as the hero in their own right. While you might love one or two of them a little more, none of them feel insignificant.

It’s a masterpiece. I’m calling it now—the best fiction of 2025 and my favorite Fredrik Backman novel to date. (It even made me wonder if parts were inspired by his own childhood memories.) I cannot recommend this book highly enough—it’s the kind of story that makes you want to shout your love for it from the rooftops and applaud for ten minutes straight like you’re at a Cannes Film Festival premiere.

Endless gratitude to NetGalley and Atria Books for sharing this AMAZING WORK with me as a digital reviewer copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Oh my word
I have no words for this book. It was just that good. I think one of the best I've read from Fredrik Backman so far and that's hard to top his others.
Touching, such feelings in this book, happy tears, sad tears.
Each and every character had a purpose to being in this story. Wow! Is all I can say and what a story!!

Thanks to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for an early release of this book.

In a book about an artist and the incredible power of art, Backman proves again that few are as talented as he is. With a single sentence, he can convey the pain of loss, the fierce joy of an older brother receiving unexpected praise from his sibling, or the emotional highs and lows of being a parent: “Then he held her hand, and her skin tried to remember how it felt, all of the time.”

For me, the book started a little slowly. However, after a few chapters, I was fully invested in the children in the painting, holding my breath as their story unfolded. The narrative is sad and heartbreaking at times, yet the joy shines through, capturing your heart. To paraphrase the title of a different Backman story: This novel is a Winner!

Fredrik Backman is one of my favorite authors. I was so excited to get an advance copy from NetGalley to review in exchange for my honest review.

If you love novels about the power of friendship, this is for you. If you love novels about art, this is for you. If you love novels about how art can heal this is for you.

This book had me laughing and crying. That's the sign of a great author, to make you feel things. I had all the feels in this one.

This wss my first book by this author and I really enjoyed his intricate writing style. I definitely remembered that people loved his cozy atmospheres and I felt that strongly in this book.

Fredrik Backman does it again! Every book is 5 stars and this is no exception. This is definitely one of my favorites by him. This book had me laughing out loud and sobbing within the same chapters. I didn’t want it to end but I wanted to know how it ended. The storyline and timelines are so seamless even though you’re jumping around between the past and present. The way he is able to write human experiences and emotion is just so unique. It is seriously some sort of magic, I don’t know how he does it! If you love character driven stories that are emotional but humorous and make you feel like your heart is being ripped out and then put back together a million times, you’ll love this book!

Thanks to Net Galley and Atria books for the ARC!

Fredrik Backman knows exactly how to ease himself into someone's heart just to break it, repair it, and break it again. Louisa and Ted's adventure feels so real and the jumps between past and present are woven together so nicely. I love when the little details come up again later, it makes the story feel so human. This book is so beautifully written that I just want to keep reading, even if it means my heart is going to keep breaking. Thank you so much to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC, I am so grateful to have been able to lose myself in this book.

Absolutely loved this book about friendship,connections and art.
No one writes about heartbreaking moments with as much tenderness as Fredrik Backman does.

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆.

I think it’s rare that you find someone that can describe grief the way Backman does in this book, it’s heavy without being too much, it’s beautiful without becoming boring. It’s a witty novel, with smart jokes, charismatic and caricatural characters but the whole story has so much depth that you just fly through it. This book is about grief and it’s many feelings, it’s pretty much like the sea, at least if you ask me. First comes the sadness, because when you lose your person you also lose your safe place, your comfort, your purpose and that’s big and painful to handle, you gotta learn to swim when it’s something you’ve never done before and you don’t have anyone to tell you how. There’s also the anger that comes with it because you don’t get to argue with death, when it comes, it steals, and suddenly you’re left alone and you don’t really realize it at first that your person will not come back. So you try and rationalize it, you try and make it make sense but it just does not, that your person was taken from you and that you can’t do anything about it and you get angry. Then there’s betrayal because you made your whole life around that person so how dare they leave you alone in it ? How dare they let you swim alone in this sea of confusion and figure it out by yourself ? So you swim and swim, and the more you do the more you realize that it isn’t as hard as the first stroke, it gets easier, it’s not pleasant it’s just easier.

I said this book is about grief but it’s also about love and how far you’re willing to go for it, it’s about friendship and realizing your friends are a found family, they’re your safe place and they make living a little less miserable everyday. It’s also about the many feelings that comes with being seventeen while also being about realizing that you’re old and coming to terms with the fact that you’re not seventeen anymore and you will never be seventeen again. It’s about art and how it changes lives, how it saves lives.

I think this is a beautiful novel with an incredible story, it breaks your heart and then stitch it back up just so it can break it again but what a privilege is it to be able to feel everything in this book so deeply. It’s amazingly written in making you realize the importance of art, the bonds of friendships and that even though everything seems dark and complicated there’s always a glimpse of light and beauty in life. While I’m not a fan of the cover and I caught myself losing interest in some part of the story because of the change between present and past and that it might get a little long by times I absolutely would recommend reading this book, it’s beautiful. Thank you Netgalley for the ARC and allowing me to feel the many feelings that comes with this novel, my review will be up on goodread and Instagram closer to publication day.

My Friends by Fredrik Backman is incredible. Four friends and a piece of artwork. So simple, yet so incredibly dynamic and complex. Set in dual timelines, we follow Joar, Ted, Ali, and the artist (Kim) throughout their 14-15th years on earth. Presently, we become acquainted with Louisa. All of these characters have had their fair share of disappointment and heartbreak. They have found each other and will do anything to protect each other. While the themes are sad and hard to read/comprehend, this is a story of resilience and perseverance. It is a story about friendship. It is a story about artwork and the feelings that art evokes within the artist and the viewer of the artwork. And it is a story about the never-ending love and trust that cements friendship together.

Wow. Just wow. Do yourself a favor and go read this book NOW! This is probably my favorite Fredrik Backman book yet. I am completely in awe of the way Backman can create these characters, bring them to life, and make you care about them. Such a talented author! Again, wow.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Fredrick Backman, and Atria Books for the opportunity to read My Friends.

Thank you so much to Atria Books and NetGalley for the gift of an ARC of My Friends. I have read all of F. Backman’s books, I feel like each has a thread connected to my heart. My Friends is no exception. Backman has the true gift of writing about the devastation and joy of being human. He is especially adept at showing the value of young people, how much they can teach us, if we take the time to listen. This is a story of friendship and art. He writes: “Art is empathy.”
My Friends is art.

My Friends by Fredrik Backman ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Atria Books
Pub Date: 5-20-25

Thank you @netgalley, @atriabooks, and @backmansk for this eARC.

"They stare at each other, the thirty-nine-year-old and the eighteen-year-old, with funerals in their eyes. It’s hard to cope with seeing yourself in someone else."

Fredrik Backman creates relationships that just squeeze my heart from the beginning to the end of the story.  How does he do that every time!?

💙 Louisa + The Artist

💙 Ted + Louisa

💙 The Artist + Ted

💙 The Artist, Ted, Joar, and Ali

This story is a perfect blend of humor, hope, sadness, and deep reflection—truly a little bit of everything!

If you're a fan of Fredrik Backman's work, you'll definitely enjoy this book and connect with its memorable characters.

"He feels like telling her that the artist didn’t give her the painting because it was his inheritance, he gave it to her because he realized that she was the inheritance. Art is what we leave of ourselves in other people. But he doesn’t quite know how to say that."

#myfriends #fredrikbackman #atriabooks #netgalley

I doubt very much that Fredrik Backman could ever write a book that didn't move me emotionally, and with My Friends, he has continued his streak of writing amazing novels that are both funny and heartbreaking, showing humanity in all of its imperfect perfection. With My Friends, Backman has managed to make the reader nostalgic for the summers of their youth, lazing about with friends and getting up to all kinds of shenanigans with buddies and only going home when the streetlights went on. The book is a tribute to the lifelong love of true friends, and also pays homage to the power art has to affect people emotionally.

Written in Backman's inimitable style, My Friends is a story within a story, told by Ted to Louisa as they make an adventurous journey. The story unfolds slowly, as it is 'a very long story' (a running joke), and with numerous twists and surprise reveals throughout. Also typical of a Backman novel, he doesn't shy away from difficult topics and child abuse plays a significant role in the story, so sensitive readers should beware. The general vibe of the book reminded me of a personal favorite novel, A Little Life, because of the friendships that helped the teens survive and continued well into adulthood, though My Friends is far less relentless with the trauma. It will certainly be among my favorite books published in 2025.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the digital ARC of My Friends by Fredrik Backman. The opinions in this review are my own.

Backman highlights a motley crew of broken souls who, although most often understood and overlooked because of their age, are guided by fierce friendships they’ve forged at the end of a pier and who are desperately piecing back together pieces of themselves through the healing power of art.

Yes, there’s a need for caution regarding f-bombs. Yes, sometimes the humour is a little off colour and flat. Yes, there are scenes included that don’t further the plot.

BUT, 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗕𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗺𝗮𝗻’𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲, I believe.

I like to power through a book when I have downtime, but I couldn’t do it with this one. I needed time to digest what I’d read before ‘dining’ again. There are so many truths and Backman offers so much to contemplate, such as the:

💜joy of parenting
💜fragility of life
💜driving force of coincidence
💜things we try to remember and what we try to forget
💜why one would wish the world was full of broken clocks
💜that loyalty is a superpower
💜difference between being loved and receiving love
💜idea that some art should belong to everyone
💜concept that time is a thief
💜importance of seeing the beauty in everything
💜importance of leaving room to be inspired
💜 necessity of finding value, of defining success
💜illusions of poverty and wealth

Backman’s story about how a kind word or deed can have transformative/ripple effects, how art can heal and how lasting childhood friendships can sustain us is one you’ll want to put on your reading list. I promise, Joar, Ted, and Ali will pull at your heartstrings and cause you to see things differently.

I was gifted this copy by Atria Books and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

Fairly predictable but an enjoyable read.. Well written, great characters and well told. hanks for the opportunity to read this and much luck on publication.

MY FRIENDS ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5. Release date 05/20/2025. What a book, absolutely one of my top reads for the year. “…life is so fragile, coincidence decides so much, it takes so little to change everything”. This story was written so beautifully, a love story of friendship, trauma bond, art. 25 years ago, average teenagers, in an average town had the summer that would forever change the trajectory of their lives. Now in the present, a girl meets one of them, and an adventure of a lifetime begins. A girl, a man, a painting worth millions, that was painted 25 years ago with a story for the ages. This book felt like being in a fairy tale, with short chapters I couldn’t stop reading. I needed to know how it ended, and how they got to where they are now. This book was just amazing, but from Fredrik Backman, I wouldn’t expect anything less. Enjoy the laugh, savor the tears.

Let me preface that I really enjoy his style of writing and have read all of his prior books.

As I was reading this new one, it reminded a bit of two books: Niko Draws a Feeling (a children’s book about a boy named Niko who draws, but nobody can see how wonderful they are except a neighbor around his age named Iris, and they become friends) and The Princess Bride because it’s a story being told about a story!

I won’t spoil anything from the book, but I will say, the way he introduces his characters are perfect and as I was reading the book, I could easily see them. I loved the plot, the characters, and the overall friendship of everyone and how they overlapped. Also, some funny things happened. At a few moments throughout the book, I was surprised by what happened and who appeared.

My favorite characters were Louisa and Ted. I hope he can continue this book with more adventures.

Fredrik Backman can never ever disappoint! Nailed right on heart with this masterpiece 🩷

Thankyou netgalley for the arc. All opinions are my own!

#MyFriends #Netgalley

Okay, like, wow, this book is everything! You think you’re just gonna read a story about teens on a pier and some mysterious painting, but nope—it’s an emotional rollercoaster that hits you right in the feels. I laughed, I cried, I hugged my pillow so tight because, like, friendship and art and life? This book just gets it. 🙌✨

The teens? Adorable and messy and just trying to make it through life with their makeshift family. The artist? Total genius vibes but also tragic and complicated. And Louisa’s journey to uncover the painting’s secrets? OMG, edge of my seat the whole time! The way everything ties together? Mind-blowing. It's like the perfect blend of heartbreak and hope—one second you're sobbing, the next you're smiling like an idiot. 😭💖

And the writing? So quotable. I mean, the way it talks about art and love and grief? Chef-level brilliance. It made me wanna frame my own emotions and hang them on a wall or something. Seriously, if you’re breathing, you need to read this book. Five shiny stars all the way. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Big thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts.