Latest news with #MyFriends
Epoch Times
5 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Epoch Times
‘My Friends': A Novel About Living and Laughing
Author Fredrik Backman writes about suffering and how small moments of kindness and beauty can illuminate the way through it. His very successful novel, 'A Man Called Ove,' was adapted into a film in his native Sweden, as well as into a U.S. film called 'A Man Called Otto,' starring Tom Hanks. Backman's latest book, 'My Friends,' is a hilarious and tender view into the private lives of several friends who inspired a famous painting, and the young newcomer who sparks a change in all of them. The book examines how art can motivate us, what it means to be alive, and the precious gift of laughter. Lashing Out Louisa is a tall, 17-year-old foster home denizen who's about to commit an act of vandalism. 'Sometimes Louisa is a genius, but sometimes she isn't a genius,' which means sometimes she does stupid things. She's also described as being 'world-class' angry.
Sunday World
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sunday World
Sinead O'Connor was working on blues album before sudden death, pal reveals
'Not long before she passed she was going to take the blues road, singing the blues, and she asked me to produce the album,' Don tells me. SINEAD O'Connor is featured on a new single called Cinderella recorded with her friend Irish blues legend Don Baker that has just been released. In an exclusive interview, Baker also tells the Sunday World how Sinead had been learning the guitar and working on a blues album before her sudden death two years ago on July 26. Last year, at the age of 75, Baker was thrilled to land a deal with a German record label. One of the songs he gave them was Cinderella, which had been a track on an album he released over a decade ago called My Songs, My Friends. 'One day in the car with Sinead I put on a CD of stuff I was working on and that was one of them. I had called it Kings,' Don reveals. 'She said, 'I'd f**kin' love to record that.' I obviously told her I'd love her to record it. So we later recorded it for the album, My Songs My Friends. Don Baker 'She kept calling the song Cinderella because there's a line in it that goes, 'Cinderella was a junkie and full of pain, ain't that the truth we're all the same.' 'She thought the line was brilliant. So we just changed the name to Cinderella because that's what everybody seemed to be calling it, 'Oh I love that song, Cinderella.' 'Cinderella is about something that is never spoken about, which is love and sex addiction and co-dependency. Sinead O'Connor 'We talk about heroin addiction, alcoholism, gambling addiction, but you rarely see a discussion about sex addiction and love addiction and co-dependency. It's a huge problem for society and she saw that.' Baker forged a close bond with Sinead through the years, although he reveals that they had a falling out and a making up in the years before she died. 'Not long before she passed she was going to take the blues road, singing the blues, and she asked me to produce the album,' Don tells me. 'I put a band together for her, we went in to the studio and I think we had about five tracks recorded…and then she went AWOL. 'I couldn't get in touch with her. She had gone to Europe without telling me. I'm sorry to say we had a bit of a falling out over that. 'But eventually the hatchet was buried and we were ok, I'm glad to say. I wouldn't like that on my conscience after she passed. 'That was the only hiccup I had with her and a lot of that was my impatience as well. I bear 50 per cent of the responsibility for that. 'I was always into her. She was a great woman. She did more for emancipation than anyone I know. She had a John Lennon type of thing in her. She always spoke the truth. 'We remember her ripping up the photograph of the pope because of all the abuse of the Catholic Church in Ireland. 'That's the real enemy,' she pointed out. 'I do think she wasn't far off the mark there. I wouldn't have had the guts to do it, but she did. So she stood up for injustice anywhere she could and I really liked that about her. I had huge respect for her. 'She didn't pick the songs I wrote for commercial reasons, she took songs I wrote because of the meaning, because of the lyrics. 'The first song of mine that she recorded was one called Woe To The Holy Vow, which hits out at the Catholic Church because of all the abuse. 'I got to know her quite well. I used to call out to her house because I was teaching her guitar in recent years. We had a laugh together as well. 'I saw the dark side to her too and, God love her, she suffered with bipolar and it's a horrible thing. If that wasn't in Sinead's way she would have been an even bigger force to be reckoned with.' DON Baker's song, Cinderella, featuring Sinead O'Connor is now available on Spotify and all music platforms. See the video now on YouTube. REVIEW ASLAN have taken the baton from their much-loved singer and songwriter Christy Dignam and are powering ahead with new music featuring Lee Tomkins on vocals. The fans embraced their first original release with Billy McGuinness revealed how they were surprised to see a new, young following at their Olympia where fans were singing back the song, Hear Your Call. This weekend they've released the follow up, A Hand To Hold, and it's guaranteed to become another Aslan anthem at live gigs. BRIEF IRISH alt-rock trio NewDad will release their long-awaited new album in September, the band announced this week. It was written over the past two years and we get a taste with their latest single and video, Roobosh, now available. BRIEF IRISH jazz and blues singer Mary Coughlan is back with a new single, Lumberjack, featuring Ultan Conlon. 'The first time I heard Ultan singing the song it broke my heart,' Mary says. 'I asked Ultan if I could sing it.'
Los Angeles Times
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
The week's bestselling books, July 20
1. Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Ballantine Books: $30) A story of friendship, love and adversity during the 1980s Space Shuttle program. 2. Vera, or Faith by Gary Shteyngart (Random House: $28) A tale of a family struggling to stay together in a country rapidly coming apart. 3. The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong (Penguin Press: $30) An unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond. 9 4. My Friends by Fredrik Backman (Atria Books: $30) The bond between a group of teens 25 years earlier has a powerful effect on a budding artist. 5. James by Percival Everett (Doubleday: $28) An action-packed reimagining of 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.' 6. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab (Tor Books: $30) A vampiric tale follows three women across the centuries. 7. Culpability by Bruce Holsinger (Spiegel & Grau: $30) A suspenseful family drama about moral responsibility in the age of artificial intelligence. 8. My Name Is Emilia del Valle by Isabel Allende (Ballantine Books: $30) A young writer in the late 1800s travels to South America to uncover the truth about her father. 9. The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley (Ace: $30) A romantasy following an assassin and a healer forced to work together to cure a fatal disease. 10. The Wedding People by Alison Espach (Henry Holt & Co.: $29) An unexpected wedding guest gets surprise help on her journey to starting anew. … 1. The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins (Hay House: $30) How to stop wasting energy on things you can't control. 2. Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster: $30) A study of the barriers to progress in the U.S. 3. The Creative Act by Rick Rubin (Penguin: $32) The music producer on how to be a creative person. 122 4. A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst (Riverhead Books: $28) The true story of a young couple shipwrecked at sea: a partnership stretched to its limits. 5. Lessons From Cats for Surviving Fascism by Stewart Reynolds (Grand Central Publishing: $13) A guide to channeling feline wisdom in the face of authoritarian nonsense. 6. 2024 by Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager, Isaac Arnsdorf (Penguin Press: $32) The inside story of a tumultuous and consequential presidential campaign. 7. Super Agers by Eric Topol (Simon & Schuster: $33) A detailed guide to a revolution transforming human longevity. 8. The Book of Alchemy by Suleika Jaouad (Random House: $30) A guide to the art of journaling and a meditation on the central questions of life. 9. We Can Do Hard Things by Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, Amanda Doyle (The Dial Press: $34) The guidebook for being alive. 10. The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer and John Burgoyne (illustrator) (Scribner: $20) On gratitude, reciprocity and community, and the lessons to take from the natural world. … 1. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (Ecco: $20) 2. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (Ballantine: $20) 3. Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (Vintage: $18) 4. All Fours by Miranda July (Riverhead Books: $19) 5. I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman (Transit Books: $17) 6. The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster: $19) 7. Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner (Scribner: $20) 8. One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune (Berkley: $19) 9. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper Perennial: $22) 10. Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood (Berkley, $20) … 1. The Friday Afternoon Club by Griffin Dunne (Penguin: $21) 2. The Wager by David Grann (Vintage: $21) 3. The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides (Vintage: $19) 4. On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder (Crown: $12) 5. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz (Amber-Allen: $13) 6. Sociopath by Patric Gagne, Ph.D. (Simon & Schuster: $20) 7. All About Love by bell hooks (Morrow: $17) 8. The Art Thief by Michael Finkel (Vintage: $18) 9. The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron (TarcherPerigee: $20) 10. The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk, M.D. (Penguin: $19)
Hindustan Times
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Review: My Friends by Fredrik Backman
'Art is a joy so overwhelming that you almost can't bear it [...] you can see a painting, and for a single moment of your life, just for a single breath, you can forget to be afraid.' Childhood's end. (Shutterstock) Fredrik Backman's latest book, My Friends begins with Louisa, an aspiring artist, standing in an old church, facing the most famous painting in the world. She is nearly 18 years old, a foster child grieving her best and only friend. Among her meagre possessions, all of which fit into her backpack, is a postcard of a painting. It's the first thing she ever stole, stuck on the refrigerator of one of her early foster homes. It's 'the first really beautiful thing she ever touched' and has since carried it with her, feeling through it an inexplicable bond with boys she has never met. 436pp, ₹599; Simon & Schuster The painting is The One of the Sea by the now-world-famous artist, known only as C Jat. He painted it when he was 14, and it isn't about the sea at all; not really. Louisa has always instinctively known that it's about the boys who catch your eye only if you look closely at the corner of the expanse of sea. A trio of friends captured on a pier in a small down-on-its-luck harbour town in the last summer of their childhood. It's a summer that 'started and ended with death', but was also filled with moments of acute beauty — at the end of it they were immortalised in a moment of vibrating laughter by an artist, the fourth friend, who'd learned how to 'whisper in colour'. This is the story of the painting by a child of divorce who was 'born with so much beauty inside him that it was like an act of rebellion'. Where he came from, kids rarely left home and repeated generational patterns of trauma in one way or another. This is the story of how the painting came so close to never being, and how it was only thanks to one friend's enduring belief in the artist that it even got made, changing the latter's life forever. 'Art is a fragile enough light as it is. It can be blown out by a single sigh. Art needs friends, with our bodies against the wind and our hands cupped around the frame, until it's strong enough to burn brightly with its own power.' The narrative flits between that summer 25 years before, with non-linear jaunts into the past and the future, and Louisa's contemporary storyline. She unexpectedly comes to own the painting (through a series of frankly implausible events that work only if you embrace Backman's fable-like narration) and embarks on a cross-country journey to find out its truth and decide what to do with it. In the process, she will be transformed, just as the artist, who remains unnamed until almost the very end, was all those years ago. Backman has spoken about how this book was much darker than his earlier ones and how it emerged from a difficult time in his life. At that point, he had considered retiring. A visit to a local bookstore with his daughter on a Saturday changed that. The place was packed with teenagers, at a time when the world claims that the young aren't reading anymore. So, Backman went home and asked himself what he would want to write about if this were the last book he ever wrote. Out sprung the dedication — to anyone who is young and wants to create something, do it — and the rest of it flowed from there. He'd found hope and redemption both of which are as evident in the story as the extreme darkness and grief that hold it in counterbalance. My Friends has all the hallmarks of a Fredrik Backman novel — the omniscient narrator, the heart, the wisdom, the laughter, the joy, the brutality (yes, it is more intense than even Beartown), the keen insights into human nature, and the observations, both sweeping and mundane. But it also feels overdone and overblown; like it is trying hard to be profound as it bludgeons the reader with its message in a way its many charming predecessors didn't. There are multiple (unnecessary) instances of foreshadowing, manipulative misdirections, and the withholding of information for no other reason than to prolong the tension. Some characters are rarely given a chance to grow beyond the tropes assigned to them. The constant reiteration of events, and of phrases — some of which are trite to begin with — soon lose all meaning. The meandering plot also could have been much tighter. It's a shame because this story has many valuable things to say: about the power of art to transform, transcend, connect across time and place, and heal; about the ways in which unconditional friendship does much of the same. Author Fredrik Backman (Courtesy Simon & Schuster) 'That we create and paint and dance and fall in love, [...] that's humanity's only defence against death.' Backman captures the feeling of being young and invincible, especially in those summer months of June and July, like only he can. He writes these broken, beaten-down characters and their too-early coming of age with such tenderness that you wish them no further harm, all the while knowing that there's more pain to come. And yet, this is the first Backman novel that hasn't elicited a single tear from this reader, one of his biggest fans. The author doesn't know whether this will be his last book or, as he told NPR, if he will be able to 'perform the trick all over again'. For his sake, and immensely for mine, I hope there's more. 'Being human is to grieve, constantly. How the hell do all the rest of you cope?' Anushree Nande is an independent writer, editor, and publishing professional currently based in Mumbai.
Winnipeg Free Press
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Depth of perspective
Tomorrow — it's a simple enough word meaning the day after today, at some future time. Unless you're one of a group of young teenagers, saying goodnight to each other as they head home to lives ranging from sadness to violent assault. Then, the word tomorrow is a symbol of hope, an affirmation from each one that they will be there the next day, that they will support each other and fill the day with the friendship, love and trust that they so desperately need. Swedish novelist Fredrik Backman's My Friends alternates between two time periods. The first is the summer before four friends turn 15; it's the last time they enjoy spending sunny days swimming off a pier, and one of them goes on to paint a picture of that idyllic time that makes him a world-famous artist. The second is 25 years later, when a troubled 18-year-old named Louisa comes into possession of the painting, which she has loved for years, and the friendship of one of the four, and embarks on an unusual cross-country trip back to the small town where it all started. Morgan Norman photo Fredrik Backman has a knack for warm-hearted but heartbreaking stories. Louisa fell in love with the painting The One of the Sea — depicting the sky, the pier and three teenagers in the water — when she was six or seven and living in one of her foster homes; she took a postcard version off the fridge door and carried it with her ever after. It means everything to her, 'a sort of happiness so overwhelming it's almost unbearable,' Backman writes. When she learns the painting will be on display at an art auction, she sneaks in to see the real thing and becomes angry at the rich art collectors and their misunderstanding of the painting, 'Because it isn't a painting of the sea. Only a damn adult would think that.' Louisa recognizes it as a painting of laughter, love and hope, the ephemeral qualities that made it and the painter famous. Backman enjoys a few sly digs at the so-called art lovers, such as how the old-money people don't like the new-money people: 'The only things that should be new are sports cars and hip joints.' Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. The alternating chapters build on each other as the story unfolds in two sets of real time: the four teenagers' summer and the genesis of the painting, and the recollections of Ted, one of the four, as he recounts the story a quarter-century later under questioning by Louisa. Backman's 2012 debut novel A Man Called Ove spent 42 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and spawned two movie versions. His subsequent books such as Beartown, Us Against You and Anxious People confirm his role as a writer with a knack for tales that are warm-hearted and heartbreaking, with characters you can't help but root for (often against what seem to be insurmountable odds) and for a sly humour (even if it does sometimes include farting). My Friends A powerful storyteller, Backman has done it again, creating a tale of messy life that balances loss and grief with joy and hope, and especially the power of friendship, that tugs at your emotions and, somehow, makes sense despite it all. The tale's many twists and turns are worth the trip; suffice to say the painting is lost, recovered and… well, why spoil it? Chris Smith is a Winnipeg writer.
