Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for this arc!

If there is one thing Fredrik Backman knows how to do it, it is make you feel every emotion. From pain, to joy and laughter, this book had it all.

I love that the friends lives are shown when they are 14, it really shows the pain and excitement of growing up and reminds me of Beartown when he mentions “no one has friends like the ones they have at fifteen.”

This book was beautiful, poetic and I loved it from start to finish!

Three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of the most famous painting in the world. Louise, a tough 18 year old gifted artist, sees this in the painting and is determined to find out the story behind these 4.
Twenty five years ago, a group of young teens find refuge from their difficult home lives by spending their days laughing and telling stories out on the pier.

Joar: never backs down from a fight, protector of the group
Ted: bookish, quiet, sensitive
Ali: only girl in the group but tough
The Artist: possesses extraordinary talent

The 4 find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream. Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be put into Louisa’s care. As she struggles to decide what to do with it, she embarks on a surprise journey to the painting’s birthplace and on the way learns the story of how the painting came to. On the trip she feels compelled to unleash her own artistic spirit, but happy endings don’t always take the form we expect.

Wow what a wonderful story that everyone needs to read! It was a book I wanted to keep reading but not to end. There were so many feelings involved with this story about friendship and art. It was funny yet sad. I laughed out loud yet many parts made me cry. It showed the power of friendship and what it means through good and bad times. The story also involved grief, sacrifice, trust and protecting those you love. It was a very heartfelt, emotional story. The story made me feel like I was there watching .

Thank you #netgalley, #fredrikbackman, #atriabooks

One of the hardest parts of getting an ARC is the promise you give to write an honest review. But what can you possibly find to write when a book leaves you without words because it is so perfectly complete? Nothing that I can say will come close to doing it justice.

Fredrik Backman has knocked it out of the park with this one. It's going to be a runaway best seller, and deservedly so because it is brilliant. The characters perfectly drawn, their relationships unbearably believable, and the love that fills each page can only come from someone who has had many moments of "perfect nows," not just one.

There is nothing more I can add. I literally have no words for how wonderful this book is, and I don't want to spoil the surprise for those of you who haven't had the opportunity to experience it yet. Consider this my present to you - a book that you are going have the joy of unwrapping for yourself.

This was my first Fredrik Backman book, and this alone has made it clear as to why Backman is such a cherished author among his readers!

My Friends tell the story of teenage best friends, specifically “that summer” (don’t all great friend groups have a “that summer?”) and where life takes them 25 years later.

A brief synopsis can’t do this book justice. It is thematic, meaningful, experience driven, emotional and touching. This book exemplifies why reading is power, reading is experience and reading is knowledge. I have learned and felt so much from being a part of this journey.

Also, for what it’s worth…no book has ever left me more desperate to see a painting.

Fredrik Backman just knows how to write characters.

This is a story about a group of four teenagers who share a bond unlike any other, and a young girl who ends up connecting with them 25 years later. I laughed, I cried, I mourned. I just felt immersed into this story.

I would consider this to be one of the best depictions of true friendship that I have read. If you are a Fredrik Backman lover like I am, I have no doubt that you'll love this one too.

I'm giving it 4 stars instead of 5 because some parts felt a bit cheesy to me- but not enough for me not to still really, really like this book.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

I truly will never understand how Fredrik Backman seems to write the most perfect books time and time again. He manages to capture the essence of how it feels to live and be a person. I know that sounds so silly and doesn’t even make any sense, but I assure you that Fredrik Backman makes it all make sense. There is just something so beautiful about how he can capture and write about the human experience. This book was a beautiful story about friendship and the magic of human connection. The writing is so real and raw.

I wish he could just narrate and encapsulate my entire life into prose because his writing is just truly one of a kind. I don’t think I’ve ever highlighted so many passages of a book before, and it truly took my breathe away at times.

I felt like I knew all of these characters inside and out and I laughed with them and oh how I cried with them too. I was sad to close the book and leave these characters behind, but I think this book and this story will stick with me for a long time.

I really, really hope this gets a movie adaptation.

I will continue to read anything and everything he writes. I think this book has now secured a spot in my top 3 of his. I could not be more excited to get a physical copy to add to my shelves.

Another winner from Fredrik Backman. This is a story of four teenage friends and their story twenty-five years later that changes a complete stranger's life. I highly recommend this book!

I know I can always rely on Fredrik Backman to break my heart with such a beautiful story and this one did not disappoint. It’s about unconditional love between friends, grief, trauma, acceptance and so much more.
“I love you. I trust you.”

My Friends is both hopeful and heartbreaking. It alternates between the past (a group of friends spending the last summer of their childhood together) and present (a teenage girl breaks into a museum to view her favorite painting and ends up engaged in the story of that summer as told by one of the friends, now an adult). Both narratives blend well and kept me engaged throughout. This book was much heavier than I expected and dealt with themes of abuse, grief, and loss. I struggled with the pacing at times and think further editing might have been beneficial, but overall very much enjoyed the story. I cried multiple times while reading which seems to be a given anytime I read a Fredrik Backman novel. The author is truly gifted at writing emotional, moving stories.

This ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the opportunity!

Backman does it again with a book filled with imperfect people and a story that ambles along yet somehow winds up being just right. It took me a few chapters to readjust to his writing style, but by then I was already in love with the characters, past and present, and fully invested in their stories and lives. Readers who enjoyed A Man Called Ove and Anxious People will find similar wit and melancholy, and a beautiful book about people learning to accept that doing their best is all that is expected of them in this world.

I don’t think I will ever forget this beautiful book. I cried in the first few chapters and cried so hard the last few that I had to take a break. I laughed throughout the whole story and reread so many paragraphs slowly to take it all in. I have a true fear this will be made into a movie that won’t do it justice. There were only a few moments in the story that didn’t sit right with me (there were a couple cheesy lectures and a plot twist that happened so fast it didn’t feel like if was given justice) but the prose and characters were beyond perfect and just lovely.

I would love for a different cover. I don’t like underwater but I absolutely need to own this book.

I received this book from net galley in exchange for a review.

No one creates a character like Fredrik Backman and the cast in My Friends is no exception. At times hilarious (I've never read a book that mentions 'farts' so much in my life!) and at other times deeply emotional, I was transported in this novel to a train ride with Louisa and to a summer with four best friends. Part coming of age and overwhelmingly a tale of love and friendship, this book was perfectly crafted and superbly written.

I loved Backman's descriptions in this novel. I truly felt like I could see the painting that so moved Louisa and shaped her life. His writing is so captivating and descriptive that I had no problem at visualizing scenes and creating images of people in my mind. I also loved how the novel was about C. Jat, but also not at all about him. He was an artist and the novel was about his talent and his muse, but also about so much more.

A coming of age novel, this was a moving and often poetic book. The pace is slow-moving but it helped me appreciate the beauty that Backman created.

If you love Backman's other novels, I definitely recommend, though this wasn't my favorite of his. Overall, it was emotive and poignant. Love emanated from the pages, even when the words bore grief and pain.

Thank you to Atria Books for an advanced copy of this wonderful novel.

The invisible line connecting the characters is a painting the reader will never see. However, as any reader of this book will learn, the artwork and the characters will live with them long after the last page.

We all become the broken eighteen-year-old Louisa traveling on the train with Ted, listening with bated breath as he tells her the story from his life 25 years earlier. We learn about his friends, their family, their hopes, and their harsh realities. Louisa asks the questions we would ask Ted, but maybe not so straightforwardly and hilariously. Their relationship builds quickly but realistically. And I’m happy they found each other.

This is storytelling at its finest. Yes, it’s an incredible example of a story within a story. Yes, it’s a quintessential coming-of-age story. Yes, it’s a celebration of the importance of all types of art, books, and friendship. But it’s much more than that. It’s about taking chances by breaking the walls that guard us from feeling our own emotions. It’s about forward momentum with the help of true friendship.

Thank you to Atria Books for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Heartfelt and human story. Would read again, and will read more by this author! The beginning is enticing and reels you in for the rest, which is difficult to put down.

I would literally die for this man. He is my absolute favorite author of all time, and this book changed my entire world. There is truly no bad book from him and this is his best work. My favorite book of all time is still ‘Anxious People’, but this is a close second. Just an extraordinary author.

This is a story of a group of abused and neglected teens who find their home in each other. They believe in each other and the beauty of art. The word choices made my heart swell, while the story made me laugh and cry. This is Backman at his best.

What can I say about Fredrick Backman that I haven’t said in other reviews? He is one, if not the only author who makes me hesitate when it comes to deciding whether or not to DNF a book. I’ve never read an author who can wrap up books as beautifully as Backman. There’s a poetic quality to the way he intertwines various threads, and "My Friends" is no exception.

My Friends is a slow burn, a story that unfolds as it needs to, in a pace all of its own and if you’re patient, you’ll be rewarded with an incredible story of friendship, love, and found family.

Backman once again demonstrates his skill in creating beautifully flawed characters. Each character is multi-dimensional, relatable, and deeply human, making it impossible not to fall in love with them and root for their journeys.

This may be a challenging book to surpass in 2025, as it sets a high benchmark for storytelling that is both heartfelt and thought-provoking.

Oh, Fredrik Backman, you write the things that change lives. I loved My Friends so much. I love getting the backstory and feeling the raw emotions, the real emotions, that Backman specializes in.........such a profound and beautiful book. I loved the artist but aren't many of us so much more like Ted? Friendship, sadness, tragedy, love.....it's all here. 5 stars, no doubt. Read this book!

I have a love hate relationship with Backmans books. I didn’t love A man called ove, loved the bear town series and surprisingly enjoyed this one. Backman has a way with words and writes such beautifully ridden stories that stick with you forever, and this one is no exception. I highly recommend reading this wine and I will be recommending it to all my friends..

In pure Backman fashion, this book is full of sweetness, misfits finding each other, tearjerker moments, and beautiful coincidences. 

As someone who treasures my friendships more than I could possibly say, I love how he captured the love and trust between friends who become your family and the endless summers of adolescence. 

The only thing I didn’t absolutely love about this book was the pacing. But it’s still a beautiful read and if you love Backman, this is just a slightly exaggerated version of everything you’ve come to expect from him. 

A huge thank you to Atria Books + NetGalley for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!