Literary Fiction spotlight
My Friends
by Fredrik Backman
A famous painting of four teenagers on a pier, and the girl who works out what really happened that summer.
Buy the book
Twenty-five years ago, four friends spent one summer by the sea. One of them painted it. Now a teenage girl with nothing left inherits the picture and goes looking for the story inside it.
Publisher's blurb
Synopsis
Backman moves between the summer that made the painting and the road trip a young stranger takes to understand it. The book is about friendship as a form of shelter for children who have none at home, and about art as the only witness that keeps its mouth shut and tells the truth anyway.
The editorial feature
Sentimental in the way Backman is always sentimental, and it works because the cruelty is real too. The teenage dialogue is very funny, and the final fifty pages are the strongest thing he has written since Beartown.
Book details
- Genre
- Literary Fiction
- Released
- 6 May 2025
- Publisher
- Atria Books
- Extent
- 448 pages
- Featured on
- 6 May 2025
Where to buy
My Friends is available from these retailers.
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