My Friends Audiobook By Fredrik Backman cover art

My Friends

 Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection of titles.
Yours as long as you’re a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for $8.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

My Friends

By: Fredrik Backman
Narrated by: Marin Ireland
Try Standard free

$8.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $25.00

Buy for $25.00

#1 New York Times bestseller, more than 1 million copies sold!

Winner of the 2025 Goodreads Choice Award for Best Fiction * Indie Next List #1 Pick * A Fallon Book Club Pick * USA TODAY Best Books of 2025 * NPR Best Books of 2025 * Marie Claire 25 Best Novels of 2025 * BookPage Best Fiction of 2025 * Real Simple Best Books of 2025 * Audible Best Audiobooks of the Year 2025 * Libby Audiobook of the Year 2026

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anxious People returns with an unforgettably funny, deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a complete stranger’s life twenty-five years later.

Most people don’t even notice them—three 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’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise, and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures.

Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier, telling silly jokes, sharing secrets, and committing small acts of rebellion. These lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream, a reason to love.

Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be placed into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. She embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn how the painting came to be and to decide what to do with it. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more nervous she becomes about what she’ll find. Louisa is proof that happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this stunning testament to the transformative, timeless power of friendship and art.

Accolades & Awards

Goodreads Choice Award
2025
Friendship Genre Fiction Goodreads Choice Award Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Funny
All stars
Most relevant
The relationships we create with others are nourishment for the soul for years to come. We create our own purpose but friendship feeds our soul.

Written about friendships but also about how you can create your future when you have friends.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
True to form for Fredrik Backman, I love how the quirky characters interact and reflect the world.

The character interactions

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book took my heart out of my chest so many times. It was beautifully written with such depth. I will need to listen to it again in a few years.

Beautifully written

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I had a very challenging childhood much like Louisa’s but I found her downright annoying.

I Couldn’t Finish It.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.