Fredrik Backman’s My Friends unfolds in Sweden, weaving together the story of four troubled friends and the life of a young stranger whose path is unexpectedly shaped by their shared past. Set against the quiet rhythms and landscapes of Swedish life, the novel explores how ordinary moments can leave extraordinary marks.

The story begins with Louisa, a teenager weighed down by grief after the death of her best friend—nicknamed Fish—and the pain of being abandoned by her mother. With little left to hold onto, she clings to a postcard of a painting called The One of the Sea, which depicts three laughing teenagers at the end of a pier. The image becomes her anchor, representing both her loss and her longing for connection. A series of chance encounters—clashing with security, fleeing an auction, and colliding with a homeless man outside a church—leads Louisa to discover that this man is the artist behind the painting. Through him, she begins to hear the story of the friends captured in the artwork.

That story takes readers back to a group of four friends growing up in Sweden, bound together by poverty, difficult home lives, and a deep loyalty to one another. They learn to carry each other’s burdens and celebrate each other’s small victories. Their favorite refuge is an abandoned pier by the sea, where they swim, talk, and watch the horizon—an ordinary place that becomes sacred through friendship. It is this pier that one of them, Kimkim, later paints, creating the work of art that will one day profoundly shape Louisa’s life.

With empathy, humor, and emotional depth, Backman captures both the ache of grief and the quiet, redemptive power of human connection, reminding readers how stories—and friendships—can ripple far beyond their beginnings.