My Friends: A Novel

My Friends: A Novel by Fredrik Backman

A homeless girl breaks into an art auction to go spread some graffiti and admire a painting she loves in person. She runs away from guards and ends up crashing into homeless guy. The homeless guy befriends her and helps her escape. She later learns that this was not a homeless man, but in fact the famous painter of the painting she admired. They have mutual admiration and then part ways. That night, the artist dies. Before dying, the artist said he wanted his famous painting to go to the girl. (He and his friend had purchased it back at the auction, after selling everything the artist had.) The girl has trouble grasping this. She ended up chasing after the friend and ended up on the train with him. On the train ride, they share each other's history. She learns the history of the painting and the friends involved. They came from a rough, working-class town. They had various struggles and experiences as they grew up. The "bully" ended up pushing the artist to do his work. The "teacher" was the one that supported the artist at the end of his life. There was violence, death and other issues. Eventually the artist was able to paint his works and escape the town.

They have some adventures on the train. They try to separate, get in fights with others and think they lost the painting and the ashes. They eventually get them back. They struggle with what to do with it. They hook up with some people remaining in the hometown and finally decide to execute a "reverse heist" and sneak into a hometown museum to hang the painting there for all to see.

The book slowly develops the characters through the history and flashbacks. It is easy to relate to the lives of the characters, even if their experiences feel very different.