My Friends by Fredrik Backman - Book Review

This is a book review of the story of a group of teenagers whose friendship during the summer they were 14-years-old creates a bond so powerful that it changes the life of another teenager twenty-five years later. The book is called “My Friends” by Fredrik Backman. 

Synopsis of My Friends

Fredrik Backman My Friends (A Novel)Check Price

Eighteen-year-old Louisa is an aspiring artist raised in foster care who lacks a plan for her future, having never been provided with a stable foundation to build upon. As the story begins, Louisa’s immediate thoughts involve sneaking into an art exhibit and auction to take a close look at a famous painting she has always admired. For many years she has had a postcard picturing this painting and longs to see the work in person.

Most people think the painting is just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, as an artist herself, knows otherwise. She has observed three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier and would dearly love to learn the story behind it. 

As she approaches the painting for a close look, the beautifully dressed rich people attending the auction notice her shabby clothes and know she doesn’t belong. She is chased out and finds herself around at the back of the building where she meets a man who has been standing there. Unbeknown to Louisa, the man is the artist of that famous painting she has just been viewing. They end up talking about art and then start drawing artwork on the side of the building. The artist (who is dying) is soon taken off by a friend who came to find him, and Louisa leaves. 

A few weeks later, the friend who escorted the artist back inside the art auction locates Louisa and gives her the painting left to her by the artist when he died. The artist told his friend why he wanted her to have the painting ~ “because she’s one of us”. 

Louisa soon begins a journey cross-country that becomes full of surprises as she learns how the painting came to be. As she arrives at the site of the painting’s beginnings, she discovers how a complete stranger’s life 25 years ago has now changed her life forever. 

The 'Before"....

The beginning those 25 years ago involved four teenagers who spent the summer of their 14th year in a distant seaside town taking refuge from their unhappy home lives. They spend the long summer days on an abandoned pier telling silly jokes, sharing secrets and finding reasons to dream, love and even get up each morning. The painting is born from the desire to find something better in their lives. 

Summary 

The story of the painting from its beginning 25 years ago to the end of its journey depicts the timeless power of friendship and art.

An unforgettable, funny, and deeply moving tale told by an author whose words continue to amaze anyone who has read any of his previous works.  Fredrik Backman was already well known for his works of “The Man Called Ove” and “My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry”. 

My Friends is a testament to cherished memories, hope, and the quiet miracle of how far a young person can go when fueled by the unwavering belief of another. This is a ‘Friendship Fiction' and 'Coming-of-Age' heartwarming story focusing on the bonds of friendship.

 “The world is full of miracles, but none greater than how far a young person can be carried by someone else’s belief in them.” 

~Fredrik Backman quote from ‘My Friends’

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*Book Review of “My Friends” was written by Wednesday Elf

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN), Esty (Awin), and/or Zazzle Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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Book Review of Things My Son Needs to Know About The World

 Author Fredrik Backman brings us a selection of charming and humorous essays about fatherhood in Things My Son Needs to Know About the World.

Synopsis

Backman wrote this collection of heartfelt and amusing anecdotes to give his newborn son the tools and understanding he'll need to make his way in the world. The essays touch on a variety of subjects. Each section has a title that conveys the big and small lessons in life Backman wishes to impart to his son. Many are ones that I immediately related to as they brought back memories of life with my own babies and how scary and sometimes overwhelming it can be when you are a first-time parent.

Titles such as...

• How to find the team to which you belong
• What you need to know about stuff
• What you need to know about being a man
• What you need to know about what happened to the singing plastic giraffe
• What you need to know about when I hold your hand a little too tight

The essays alternate between humorous side notes, sometimes only a paragraph or a half-page long, and longer essays.

Fredrik Backman and Fatherhood

Along with the advice to his baby son, Backman also reveals many of his own false steps and fatherly flaws. Between the sleep-deprived lows and the wonderful highs, the author also shares how he fell in love with his son's mother and learned to live a life that revolves around the people you care about unconditionally.

Summary

Written in Backman's wonderful style and delightful way with words, this Swedish author brings us an insightful and irresistible collection of 'firsts' that is perfect for new parents.

Backman has an unparalleled understanding of human nature and conveys it all so well.

He ends with reminding us that:

“You can be whatever you want to be, but that’s nowhere near as important as knowing that you can be exactly who you are.”

Links to Other Fredrik Backman Book Reviews:

• A Man Called Ove
• My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry
• Anxious People
• Britt-Marie Was Here

Available on Amazon

*Book Review of Things My Son Needs to Know About the World was written by Wednesday Elf

A Memoir by Fredrik Backman

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Anxious People by Fredrik Backman – A Book Review

Fredrik Backman is an absolutely delightful writer from Sweden. He writes about people in a special way that portrays who they are, what they are and who and what they appear to be, yet often are not. He describes their hurts and grievances, secrets and passions in a way the reader can relate. Oh, yes, the reader thinks, I recognize this character in my brother, father, best friend, maybe even myself.

Backman's stories take place in Sweden, but it could be anywhere, as people are the same all over. 

Synopsis

Available on Amazon

In Anxious People, we meet a group of people who are attending an apartment open house. Then a failed bank robber bursts in and takes them hostage.  The captives range from a retired couple who hunt down fixer-uppers, a wealthy banker who only cared about making money and can't relate to people, a young couple about to have their first baby and an 87-year-old woman. Then there is the mystery man in the bathroom and the flustered, but still-ready-to-make-a- deal real estate agent. Even the bank robber has issues. 

Add in the authorities trying to negotiate the hostages release. The main ones are a father and son who both work for the local police department. They fluster each other and take care of each other.

As the book progresses, we learn who the bank robber is (who failed to rob the bank because it is a cashless bank) and why an attempt was made.  We are given some backgrounds on the people who became hostages. We hear about the police involvement.  The story goes back and forth between what is happening during the hostage situation in the apartment to the individual people and what brought them to this open house on New Year's Eve (a strange day to have an Open House, for sure) to the interviews the police try to conduct with the witnesses after their release. All through this they try to figure out what happened to the bank robber who was no where to be found after releasing the hostages.

As The Story Begins.... in the Author's Words

A bank robbery, a hostage drama, a stairwell full of police officers on their way to storm an apartment.  It was easy to get to this point, Much easier than you might think. All it took was one single really bad idea. 

This story is about a lot of things, but mostly about idiots. So it needs saying from the outset that it's always very easy to declare that other people are idiots, but only if you forget how idiotically difficult being human is.  Especially if you have other people you are trying to be a reasonably good human being for.

One single really bad idea. That's all it takes.

There is also the part about how ten years ago a man was standing on a bridge. This seems to be a non sequitur, because this is a story about a bank robber and a hostage situation and the people involved. So why does the author keep bringing up the bridge throughout the story? 

Summary

So, to summarize, we have a charming novel about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common then they ever imaged. Oh, and don't forget the bridge! 

If you have read any of Fredrik Backman's previous books, two of which have been reviewed here on ReviewThisReviews, you will be drawn to Anxious People immediately because they were such delightful reads. This one is the same – a very enjoyable read; a book you can't put down to the final page; a book whose ending is as delightful (and surprising) as the rest.

Backman's books are so good that when I finish the last paragraph on the last page, I feel a strong pull to return to page one and begin the book all over again. It's that hard to leave this world of words that is so humorous, compassionate and wise. 

More...

Trio of Fredrik Backman Books

For your future reading after you finish Anxious People, check out these other Backman book reviews on ReviewThisReviews.

• A Man Called Ove reviewed by Treasures by Brenda
• My Grandmother Told Me to Tell You She's Sorry, reviewed by Wednesday Elf

Anxious People, a book review written by

~Wednesday Elf

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN), Esty (Awin), and/or Zazzle Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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Britt-Marie Was Here – A Book Review

 By Fredrik Backman, the bestselling author of A Man Called Ove and My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell you She's Sorry.

Synopsis

Britt-Marie is an older lady who has spent her life taking care of everyone else before herself. She cannot tolerate a mess and finds herself constantly cleaning and straightening. She also makes lists about everything. But now her life has become a mess and she doesn't know what to do about it.

She has just left her husband for being unfaithful and needs to find a job. The only one available to someone with no real experience in the working world is a temporary one in a forgotten little town called Borg. The job entails looking after a crumbling recreation center in a town where the main business has folded and nearly every other business has closed down. The only people who still enjoy the recreation center is the group of children who make up the very untalented soccer team. 

Britt-Marie is a very organized person who knows exactly how others should live their lives and she isn't shy about sharing her opinions. For instance, there is a proper way to sort a cutlery drawer and dinner must be at 6 pm exactly every night.  And, of course, there are  certain cleaning products, such as baking soda, which must always be used. 

But hidden inside this socially awkward and fussy busybody is a woman who has more imagination, bigger dreams, and a warmer heart than anyone around her realizes.

As Britt-Marie is drawn into the daily doings of Borg and the misfits who populate the town, along with helping the children with the soccer team, she discovers more about herself than she ever realized and perhaps a place where she truly belongs. 

Summary

As has been true of every one of Fredrik Backman's books, this is a heartwarming story told with the author's special way with words. I have been fascinated with Backman's storytelling with every one of his books I've read. I highly recommend this story of a woman who rediscovers herself and of a small town who has an unforgettable group of citizens who will never forget that “Britt-Marie Was Here”. 

Find this Book on Amazon

Related Links:

• A Man Called Ove reviewed by Treasures by Brenda
• My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry reviewed by Wednesday Elf
• Anxious People reviewed by Wednesday Elf
• For More Book Reviews, check out ReviewThisBooks.com 

*Britt-Marie Was Here reviewed by Wednesday Elf

A Fredrik Backman novel

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN), Esty (Awin), and/or Zazzle Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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A Man Called Ove Book Review

Fredrik Backman's novel, A Man Called Ove, is a story about the grumpiest man ever. I really, really had to struggle to put Ken Follett's enthralling Fall of Giants down in order to read Ove for my next book club meeting. This problem seems to keep happening to me; that is, having to put one book down for a book club book. That's okay though. Part of the reason for joining a book club is to read books you might not have chosen on your own.

My husband, as always, was good at pushing me to the book I needed to be reading. Whenever Chris saw me with the wrong book in hand, he’d raise an eyebrow and I would reluctantly put Fall of Giants down in trade for Ove. My heart, however, was not in it. At least, not at first...

In the end, I cared. I cared about Ove and how he had come to be such a grumpy old curmudgeon. The cover suggests that reading this book will cause you to feel sympathy for the curmudgeons in your life, which might well be true but I am so very glad to say that I do not know anyone even a little bit as grumpy as Ove. He is, as Amazon says, "the bitter neighbor from hell."

Ove complains about everything. He is a strict believer that rules are meant to be followed, signs obeyed, things put in their place. If you do not feel the same way, be prepared to hear about it. He rejects most of modern technology believing computers, mobile gadgets and even modern vehicles to be bad news. He has strict routines and principles to be adhered to.

Despite Ove, or perhaps I should say because of Ove, A Man Called Ove is an entertaining book. It tells his life story and the story of the people who become his friends despite his off-putting personality. It does a good job of illustrating how one life affects the next and then the next.

Believe it or not, I would RECOMMEND this grumpy old man’s story. You will laugh and you will cry though I do remember laughing more than crying.

There were a number of surprises in this book. The one that bothered me is the age of this grumpy old man. I was jaw smacked when I finally found out how old he was and I see from other reviews online that I am not the only one who takes exception to the age that author Backman set for a grumpy old man.

If you pick up and read A Man Called Ove, be sure to come back and let us know what YOU think about Ove’s story (and about his age.) You can find it quickly and affordably priced on Amazon by clicking right here.

If you are looking for more books by Fredrik Backman, you might like to check out this review of My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by another contributor here on Review This.

Stay tuned for more book reviews!

Brenda
Treasures By Brenda

More Book Reviews:

Steve Berry's Amber Room.
John Sandford's Extreme Prey.
The One Man by Andrew Gross.

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN), Esty (Awin), and/or Zazzle Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry - Book Review

by Fredrik Backman

A Delightful and Most Charming Story

Elsa is seven-going-on-eight, and different.  Granny is seventy-seven years old, and nutty. They are best friends and love each other dearly.  Elsa admits only to herself that her granny is her ONLY friend, as her school chums think her strange and are mean to her. Elsa's strangeness is only in the fact that she is extremely smart and very grown-up for her age (constantly looking words up on Wikipedia!). Her world revolves around her grandmother, her parents, adventures in the fairy tales granny tells, and her admiration for superheros and Harry Potter.

Elsa's parents are divorced and she sees her dad every-other-weekend.  The rest of the time she lives with her mom, who is expecting a baby, and George on the top floor of a 4-story flat across the hall from her grandmother.  The rest of the apartment building is filled with a strange mixture of people we learn about as time goes on. 

The Land-of-Almost-Awake

 

For quite some years, Granny has been telling fairy tales to Elsa to help her go to sleep and get her to practice Granny's secret language.  The fairy tales take place in the "Land-of-Almost-Awake" and the "Kingdom of Miamas" where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal. 

Later, Elsa's grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged.  The letters are entrusted to Elsa to deliver, bringing about her greatest adventure ever.  The stories of the people who live in the apartment building, including a brave dog who is very much like the 'wurse' in the Kingdom of Miamas, are revealed to us one by one.  As each letter is delivered we learn the truth about fairy tales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other.

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry was written by Fredrik Backman, a native of Sweden who lives in Stockholm. This is only his second novel, but you get the feeling from this well-written story that he has been writing for a very long time. 


His first novel is A Man Called Ove, which became a #1 bestseller in Sweden. 

*Note: When Backman's second book was first published in England in 2014, it had the title: My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises. 

My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry

 

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry is an absolutely charming story filled with humor and wisdom, and with a glimpse into a fairy tale world we all wish we could visit.  I took Elsa and her grandmother so much to heart that when I finished the book I wanted to immediately go back to page one and read it all over again. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you will fall in love with these delightful characters. I highly recommend this book.

*Wednesday Elf

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN), Esty (Awin), and/or Zazzle Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Best Books As Reviewed By Me in 2017

What follows is a list of the books that I highly recommended in my book reviews in 2017. I did not write a book review for absolutely every book that I read though I did cover quite a few of them and I think that I probably included the best of them. How could I resist writing about a book that I loved? I figure that the few that are missing are likely the books that I did not enjoy reading or perhaps a couple that were missed during a busy time. Anyway, here is my list of HIGHLY RECOMMENDED books that I reviewed here on Review This.

I wrote eleven book reviews and five of them ranked well enough to receive the coveted HIGHLY RECOMMENDED distinction, LOL. These are the books that I thoroughly enjoyed and that stood out above the others:

The Nightingale

Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale is a World War II story set in German-occupied France. I recommend this novel for anyone who enjoys World War II fiction and a good story. Find my complete review here.

The One Man

Andrew Gross’ The One Man is another well-crafted World War II story this time set in Poland. Once again, I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys World War II fiction and a gripping story. Find my complete review here.

Extreme Prey

John Sanford’s Extreme Prey is also on this list because it is highly recommended but it earned that distinction from a guest writer for whom I have the utmost respect, my husband. Chris has read and enjoyed almost all of Sandford’s works so obviously, I must check out John Sanford in 2018. Meanwhile, you can find Chris' complete review here.

Mr. Mercedes

Stephen King’s Mr. Mercedes is an unexpected book addition to both my reading list and to this list of highly recommended books. In 1987, with the release of the book Misery and the subsequent movie, I decided that King's works were too horror filled for me. Until that year, I had read every book he had written but since that day, I have read none. That is, until Mr. Mercedes.

Anyway, Mr. Mercedes was a book club pick from a member whose preferred books are by Stephen King. She wanted to introduce the members of our group who had never read one of his books to his writing.  In my mind, this was an excellent choice and many were enthralled by this police detective novel though of course it opens in a very horrible manner. Crime/detective stories often do. Find my complete review of Mr. Mercedes here and be sure not to miss the rest of the trilogy.

The Century Trilogy

Finally, Ken Follett’s The Century Trilogy, which includes three volumes: Fall of Giants, Winter of the World and Edge of Eternity. These three lengthy novels kept me thoroughly entertained for many, many hours. Find my review here.

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Other books that I wrote about but that did not receive the top designation of HIGHLY RECOMMENDED were Losing Graceland by Micah Nathan, Remains of the Day by Kazuo Isiguro, A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, Hallmark’s A Century of Caring, Talking As Fast As I Can by Lauren Graham and The Art of Racing by Garth Stein. They are still worth options for your book list.

How does my list stack up? Did you enjoy any of these books? What were your favorite reads in 2017?

Here’s to another
great year in books!
Brenda

Quick Links:

See all of the book reviews on Review This.
Amazon’s Bestsellers 2017 Book List.  
(Yes, I may receive a small commission if you make a purchase through this link.)

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN), Esty (Awin), and/or Zazzle Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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