My Friends Book Club Questions & Discussion Guide

About this book

Most people see only the sea in one of the most famous paintings in the world, but Louisa, a quirky, fiercely intelligent teenager raised in foster care, is sure the three small figures at its edge have a story. Twenty-five years earlier, four teenagers escaping hard home lives found refuge, and each other, on an abandoned pier. Told across two timelines, this is a funny, heartbreaking novel about friendship, grief, and the power of art to change a stranger's life long after it is made.

Discussion questions

1. The book opens years after a famous painting was made, with a teenager determined to uncover the story behind three small figures at the edge of it. What was your first impression of Louisa, and of her obsession with the painting?
2. The novel unfolds in two timelines, the teenagers then and Louisa now. If the back-and-forth ever slowed you, which timeline pulled you in first?
3. The four friends find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a refuge from hard homes. What did their bond reveal about them, and which of them stayed with you?
4. The artist, near the end of his life, sets a plan in motion for a stranger. Where did you land on what he chose to give Louisa, and why it mattered so much to him?
5. The book is a tribute to friendship and to the power of art to change a life. What did it ultimately say about creativity, connection, and where an ordinary life becomes extraordinary?
6. Backman reveals the meaning of the painting slowly, across both timelines. How did that gradual unfolding shape your reading, and how did you feel once you understood what the painting really was?
7. The abandoned pier where the friends gathered becomes a kind of sacred place. How did that setting hold the story's feeling, both then and now?
8. The book has been compared to Stand by Me for its portrait of teenage friendship. Did it remind you of another story about the friends who shaped you, or of your own?
9. The novel is interested in the people who see us before the rest of the world does. Did it make you think about a friend who believed in you early, and did anyone at the table share one?
10. Who would you hand this to next, the reader who wants to laugh and cry over a story of friendship or someone drawn to art and second chances, and who might find it too sentimental?

Themes to listen for

• Friendship as a reason to keep going
• The power of art to change a life
• Found family amid hard beginnings
• Grief, memory, and legacy
• The people who see us before the world does

If your club liked this, try…

• Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
• The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Where to get it

• Check availability at your local library
• Find it on Bookshop.org
• Listen on Libro.fm

Practical notes

Best for clubs that love a heartfelt story of friendship and art. A strong pick for a club that likes to talk about the friendships that shaped them.

Content notes: Grief, death, and difficult home lives, told with humor and tenderness but present throughout.