While You Wait for My Friends
Swedish author Fredrik Backman is back with another heartfelt story that will leave a lasting impression. My Friends was released in May of this year and has climbed up to the top of the holds here at the library. You may need to patiently wait for it, but it's sure to be worth holding out for.
My Friends follows 18-year-old Louisa who has a world-famous painting unexpectedly fall into her care. Tucked away in the corner of the painting are three tiny figures sitting on the pier. Most people don’t notice them. However, Louisa, a budding artist herself, does notice those three little people and she is driven to uncover their story.
While struggling to decide what to do with her newfound possession, Lousia sets forth on a cross-country adventure to track down the painting’s birthplace. She hopes to reveal the painting's meaning to help her determine what should become of the work. The journey isn’t easy and Lousia’s nerves about the truth grow with each passing mile.
Taking a step back 25 years, the story of four teenagers, Joar, Ted, Ali and a young artist, begins to unfold. The pier becomes a place of refuge for them from their difficult home lives. From their summer together a piece of art emerges that will have lasting effects on many people.
While you wait to journey alongside Louisa to reveal the paintings history, I recommend other stories that deal with artistry and the undeniable power of human connection.
No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister
Alice has always wanted to be an author, but her stories were too cautious and didn't fully use her talent. Then one event changes everything.
After a devastating turn, Alice's heart breaks wide open and from it spills a story that will resonate with nine readers in very different walks of life including a young homeless teenager, a bookseller, an artist and a widower. Each reader is searching for something while facing circumstances at odds with their hopes.
Ten lives are changed as a result of Alice's novel, leading each one forward on paths they never expected to take. These stories expose the power of books and they unique effects books can have on each person's life. The stories also demonstrate how we may be more connected to one another than we think.
My Friends and No Two Persons both show the power of art to change the lives of those who come across it leaving them changed and able to forge unexpected connections.
“Unforgettable. No Two Persons is a beautiful and haunting love letter to the redemptive power of stories and the impressive mark it leaves on readers. Bauermeister is a powerful storyteller who weaves a brilliant narrative, while painting portraits of compelling characters." ― Kim Michele Richardson, New York Times bestselling author of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
In Some Other World, Maybe by Shari Goldhagen
In Some Other World, Maybe, might be a more comedic version of My Friends. The challenges these characters face are much different from those Backman's characters deal with, but no less powerful in helping forge connections between people who otherwise might not have found each other.
It's December 1992 and the movie version of the Eons & Empires comics is released in theaters, drawing many teens to the scene. Included in these movie goers are three sets of teens whose lives will become intertwined in the decades to come.
The movie offers Adam one last chance to connect with the girl he's been crushing on before setting off toward a new life outside his Florida hometown. In Cincinnati Sharon skips school to see the film and shocking consequences follow. And in Chicago Phoebe and Ollie want to have a nice first date but family keeps getting in the way.
Over the next two decades we follow these characters as their paths cross and friendships develop. As each one faces their own challenges one thing is clear – human existence is messy and the connections you develop with others can lead you toward new adventures.
“A compelling tale that leaves readers pondering what is and, had life taken another direction, what could have been.” — BookPage
Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers
In spring 1964 Helen Hansford, an art therapist at Westbury Park psychiatric hospital, receives a call about a disturbance nearby. She finds a 37 year old man named William Tapping who is mute and has an unusually long beard and hair. Even stranger it appears William went unseen by neighbors for decades when he lived with his now deceased aunts. Left with no family William finds refuge in Westbury Park.
Soon Helen learns William is not exactly what he first seemed. He is of sound mind and a brilliant artist who draws Helen in as she strives to uncover his history. However, Helen's efforts to understand William are causing her own carefully constructed secrets to fall apart.
If the tortured artist element of My Friends piques your interest, don't miss out on Shy Creatures as the journey to understand William Tapping is sure to keep your attention.
"A beautiful story of unfolding secrets and unforeseen consequences, filled with moments that are somehow restrained and astute and gorgeously written all at the same time." — Holly Gramazio, author of The Husbands
Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
If you're looking for a true example of the power of friendship, I recommend Truth & Beauty. In this work of nonfiction, the first from Ann Patchett, we follow the powerful friendship and sense of found family between Ann and her best friend, Lucy Grealy. The pair's journey together began in 1981 while enrolled in the Iowa Writers' Workshop and continued for many years to come.
Though each has their own story to tell, this book reveals the journey of two lives tightly intertwined and the commitment two friends have to each other. From brutal winters to book parties, and from fame to despair, Patchett reveals the good and the troublesome in a longstanding friendship.
Eventually, as all good things must, the friendship ends in an untimely manner leaving one half of the puzzle behind. This book offers insight into the loyalty that remains when you love someone and the power of one to uplift the other from beyond the grave.
"A loving testament to the work and reward of the best friendships, the kind where your arms can’t distinguish burden from embrace.” — People
Whether it's your friends or (found) family, make sure you tell them you love them today.
