Bittersweet summer tale
Swedish author Fredrik Backman's new novel My Friends has hit the shelves.
The tale is set in the summer, when a group of teenagers find refuge away from their difficult home, living in an abandoned pier, where they tell each other stories and joke around.
A painting by one of the three friends emerges 25 years later and lands into the hands of 18-year-old Louisa, who embarks on a cross-country journey to learn the story behind it, which also inspires her to unleash her own artistic self.
'It's a little story my brain and I have argued about for a few years, about art and artists, about being young and desperately wanting to create something, anything,' Fredrik said in a social media post.
'It's also about growing up close to violence, outside and inside, and having friends who'd fight the whole universe for you. It's about those who saw greatness in you before you ever could. It's about being 17, and how a painting in a museum can knock you over so completely, it changes the whole trajectory of your life,' he added.
The #1 New York Times bestselling author is known for many novels, most famously, A Man Called Ove, which was published in English in 2013, and later adapted into a namesake Swedish comedy drama film in 2015, as well as a 2022 American film titled A Man Called Otto starring Tom Hanks and his son Truman.
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