My Friends
by Fredrik Backman· 2025
A woman inherits a painting and begins a quest to unravel the story of how it came to be. Fredrik Backman returns with a tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond that 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 figures.
Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier, telling jokes, sharing secrets, and committing small acts of rebellion. These teenagers 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 work of art, a painting that will be placed into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. She embarks on a 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.
1 edition available
Editions
A woman inherits a painting and begins a quest to unravel the story of how it came to be. Fredrik Backman returns with a tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond that 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 figures. Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier, telling jokes, sharing secrets, and committing small acts of rebellion. These teenagers 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 work of art, a painting that will be placed into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. She embarks on a 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.