{
"id": 521267,
"slug": "my-friends-fredrik-backman",
"nstc": null,
"title": "My Friends",
"subtitle": "by Fredrik Backman",
"collection_title": null,
"collection_part_number": null,
"annotation": null,
"description": "Most people don\u2019t even notice them\u2014three 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\u2019s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an artist herself, knows otherwise and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures.<br />Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their difficult home lives by spending their days laughing and telling stories out on a pier. There\u2019s Joar, who never backs down from a fight; quiet and bookish Ted who is mourning his father; Ali, the daughter of a man who never stays in one place for long; and finally, there\u2019s the artist, a boy who hoards sleeping pills and shuns attention, but who possesses an extraordinary gift that might be his ticket to a better life. These four lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream.<br />Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be put into eighteen-year-old Louisa\u2019s care. As she struggles to decide what to do with this bequest, she embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn the story of how the painting came to be. The closer she gets to the painting\u2019s birthplace, the more she feels compelled to unleash her own artistic spirit, but happy endings don\u2019t always take the form we expect in this fresh testament to the transformative power of friendship and art.",
"imprint": null,
"language_code": "eng",
"original_language_code": null,
"page_count": 400,
"duration_seconds": null,
"publication_date_first": "2025-06-30",
"publication_date_latest": "2025-06-30",
"cover_url": null,
"editions": [
{
"isbn": "9781398516403",
"product_form": "BC"
}
],
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},
"created_at": "2025-09-19T14:40:13+00:00",
"updated_at": "2025-11-02T00:43:56+00:00",
"publisher": {
"id": 1787,
"slug": "-",
"name": "",
"created_at": "2025-09-19T12:37:05+00:00",
"updated_at": "2025-09-19T15:13:47+00:00"
},
"contributors": [
{
"id": 320354,
"slug": "fredrik-backman-2",
"key_names": "Backman",
"names_before_key": "Fredrik",
"prefix_to_key": null,
"contributor_role": "A01",
"readable_contributor_role": "Author"
}
],
"genres": [],
"subjects": [
{
"scheme_identifier": "32",
"scheme_version": null,
"main_subject": false,
"subject_code": "300",
"created_at": "2025-09-19T14:40:13+00:00",
"updated_at": "2025-09-19T14:40:13+00:00"
}
],
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}