{ "item_title" : "My Friends", "item_author" : [" Fredrik Backman "], "item_description" : "Click here for the Autographed copy#1 New York Times bestselling author Fredrik Backman, who captures the messy essence of being human (The Washington Post), returns with an unforgettably funny, deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a 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 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 town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their difficult home lives by spending their days laughing and telling stories out on a pier. There's Joar, who never backs down from a fight; quiet and bookish Ted who is mourning his father; Ali, the daughter of a man who never stays in one place for long; and finally, there's the artist, a boy who hoards sleeping pills and shuns attention, but who possesses an extraordinary gift that might be his ticket to a better life. These four lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream. Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be put into eighteen-year-old Louisa's care. As she struggles to decide what to do with this bequest, she embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn the story of how the painting came to be. The closer she gets to the painting's birthplace, the more she feels compelled to unleash her own artistic spirit, but happy endings don't always take the form we expect in this fresh testament to the transformative power of friendship and art.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers1.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/1/98/211/282/1982112824_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "29.99", "online_price" : "26.39", "our_price" : "26.39", "club_price" : "26.39", "savings_pct" : "12", "savings_amt" : "3.60", "club_savings_pct" : "12", "club_savings_amt" : "3.60", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "29.99" } }

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There’s not a lot of beauty in Louisa’s world. She’s on the run from her foster home, a day away from her 18th birthday. Her best friend recently died, and the adults in their lives chalked it up as a predictable outcome for kids like them. Life hasn’t treated her well, but Louisa carries a bit of beauty everywhere she goes: a postcard of the painting “The One of the Sea” by artist C. Jat. Most people are distracted by the title and the painting’s swaths of blue. But Louisa has gazed at her reproduction long enough to see something more. Tucked into the sea is a pier with three children sitting on it, vibrating with laughter. Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, dreams of not only being able to capture a moment that way but also of meeting the artist and hearing the story of those friends. After she sneaks into an art auction to see the painting in person, Louisa’s ambitions are fulfilled in ways she couldn’t possibly have imagined. Bestselling novelist Fredrik Backman (A Man Called Ove, Anxious People) has built his career with idiosyncratic characters in stories that demolish a reader’s heart before stitching it back together. My Friends may be the pinnacle of Backman’s heartbreaking powers. His writing is as smooth as ever, drawing readers into Louisa’s story with the easy ebb and flow of waves dissolving onto a shore. But this gentle storytelling belies the very real, deep struggles Backman’s characters face. My Friends is chock-full of observations that made this reviewer put down the novel to catch her breath: “Being human is to grieve, constantly.” “Art teaches us to mourn for strangers.” “Art is coping with being alive for one more week.” “The most dangerous place on earth is inside us.” In My Friends, Backman again pays tribute to the forces that make an ordinary life extraordinary. By focusing his tremendous empathy on the power of art and friendship, he has created a novel that celebrates the beauty of being alive.