My Friends

Backman’s latest is both deeply funny and incredibly devastating. Twenty-five years ago, four friends found each other at a crucial time. Their friendship didn’t lessen the violence, poverty, loss, or sense of worthlessness they felt in their adolescent lives, but the pain felt more bearable because they had each other. One of those friends became a world-renowned painter, whose works came to be coveted by many. In the present day, a tormented teen named Louisa falls in love with one of those paintings, and this love changes her life by pulling her into the friends’ orbit. Raw, vulnerable, and tender, Backman beautifully captures how fierce love makes things bearable even when it feels like the whole world is against you, and the necessity of telling the people we love how much they mean to us, no matter how bumbling and inadequate our attempt.