“My Friends,” written by Fredrik Backman and translated by Neil Smith, is a book, as the title suggests, about friendship. However, it is also a book about creativity, pain, and grief. The book tells the story of a young artist named Louisa, who finds a postcard of a painting in her foster home, and has since held on to it. The story then goes back to when the painting was created, 25 years prior. The story begins as Louisa sneaks into an art auction to see the painting in real life and ends up meeting the artist and his closest friend, Ted, who goes on to tell her the story behind the painting.
Most people think the painting is of the ocean, when in reality it is a painting of a group of friends lounging on a pier, barely noticeable amid the blue of the sea and sky. Ted, Joar, Ali, and the artist, who remains unnamed for most of the book, grew up in a working class harbor town that wasn’t kind to those who didn’t fit in, which included the four of them. The summertime was their respite from the troubles that school and other students brought. At the beginning of summer they turn 15, Joar finds a newspaper ad for a painting competition, and they decide that the artist must enter it, regardless of any challenges.
The main focus of this book is on the relationships between characters and what that reveals about how we love each other, create, and move through the world. There are very few action-packed scenes or ones with a lone character, but many mundane yet incredibly impactful scenes with the group of friends. Each character is incredibly distinct from the others: Joar will always fight to protect his loved ones, Ali is fierce and chaotic, Ted is anxious and struggling with his identity, and the artist is quiet and feels isolated as he uses art to cope with his depression. Together, though, they create a friendship so caring and unique that the painting that captures it will be world famous one day.
The way their friendship is imbued into every part of the book is what makes it such a special and profound read, because it encapsulates what friendship feels like, in all of its messiness, beauty, and pain. Though his writing isn’t particularly dense or poetic, Backman is able to create and convey the nuances of the characters’ experiences in a way that makes every chapter sentimental. There are scenes that make you want to laugh along with the characters’ banter, and cry with their sorrow, and feel incredibly happy to be witnessing such joyful moments.
Backman talks a lot about what it means to be an artist and about how art never comes from a vacuum, rather he articulates that it is built on a foundation of the art that inspires us and our relationships with our loved ones. “My Friends” is a truly a story written in honor of the friends that shape us, and the art that brings us together as a community.