Book #82 |
Book: My Friends | Author: Fredrik Backman | |
| Source: Library loan Format: Kindle |
Pages: 435 | Duration: 09/07/25 – 09/09/25 (3 days) | |
| Rating: ★★★★★ | Genres: literary fiction, coming of age, friendship, art, LGBT | ||
| 📕10-word summary: Four teens’ friendship changes another teen’s life 25 years later. 🖌6-word review: Indescribably compelling book, incredibly beautifully written. |
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| 💭A favorite quote: “Death is public, but dying is private.” | |||
| 🎓Some new-to-me words: prow, gawps, splutters, petrichor | |||
| Description:* 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 enigmatic figures. Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier, telling silly jokes, sharing secrets, and committing small acts of rebellion. These lost souls 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 transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be placed into 18-year-old Louisa’s care.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||
| Thoughts: This is my 4th Fredrik Backman book, having read The Answer is No earlier in 2025, Anxious People in 2023, and A Man Called Ove in 2017. I actually abandoned A Man Called Ove (for distracting overuse of similes!); loved The Answer is No, which was a short story; and adored Anxious People, which I laughed my way through. This book, however, absolutely blew me away. The writing is just phenomenal, with so many turns of phrases that virtually stunned me and that make your heart either sink or leap. There were just under 1,000 people on the library’s waiting list when I joined it, and I waited months for it. I can see why it’s so popular, and the wait was totally worth it. I’d like to make this book a Mostly Social Book Club book one day, but we only read books that we can borrow (or get for free), and I’m sure it’ll be a long, long time before this one becomes “readily available.” If you’re the type who buys books, I can’t recommend this one enough. | |||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
