Publishers Weekly
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Backman (The Winner) delivers a wistful story about the power of friendships. The day before her 18th birthday, Louisa sneaks into an auction house to see The One of the Sea, the first painting by a famous artist who goes by C. Jat. After a guard chases her out, she has a brief encounter in the alley with the artist, whom she initially mistakes for a homeless person. The painter, whose real name is revealed later in the story, has been dealing with a long illness, and just before he dies, he tasks his friend Ted, one of four boys depicted in the 25-year-old painting, with tracking down Louisa to gift it to her. Louisa has just aged out of foster care and is reeling from the recent death of her close friend from an overdose. Though she worries she’s not capable of taking responsibility for the painting, she finds comfort in the story Ted tells her of the summer the painting was made, when the friends were 14 and they were all dealing with upheaval. Ted’s father had died that summer, and the artist’s unstable single mother was urging him to “just try to be normal.” Louisa and Ted’s interactions feel genuine, which makes the effect of his story on her all the more moving. The author is at the top of his game. (May)

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

An artwork’s value grows if you understand the stories of the people who inspired it. Never in her wildest dreams would foster kid Louisa dream of meeting C. Jat, the famous painter ofThe One of the Sea, which depicts a group of young teens on a pier on a hot summer’s day. But in Backman’s latest, that’s just what happens—an unexpected (but not unbelievable) set of circumstances causes their paths to collide right before the dying 39-year-old artist’s departure from the world. One of his final acts is to bequeath that painting to Louisa, who has endured a string of violent foster homes since her mother abandoned her as a child. Selling the painting will change her life—but can she do it? Before deciding, she accompanies Ted, one of the artist’s close friends and one of the young teens captured in that celebrated painting, on a train journey to take the artist’s ashes to his hometown. She wants to know all about the painting, which launched Jat’s career at age 14, and the circle of beloved friends who inspired it. The bestselling author ofA Man Called Ove (2014) and other novels, Backman gives us a heartwarming story about how these friends, set adrift by the violence and unhappiness of their homes, found each other and created a new definition of family. “You think you’re alone,” one character explains, “but there are others like you, people who stand in front of white walls and blank paper and only see magical things. One day one of them will recognize you and call out: ‘You’re one of us!’” As Ted tells stories about his friends—how Jat doubted his talents but found a champion in fiery Joar, who took on every bully to defend him; how Ali brought an excitement to their circle that was “like a blinding light, like a heart attack”—Louisa recognizes herself as a kindred soul and feels a calling to realize her own artistic gifts. What she decides to do with the painting is part of a caper worthy of the stories that Ted tells her. The novel is humorous, poignant, and always life-affirming, even when describing the bleakness of the teens’ early lives. “Art is a fragile magic, just like love,” as someone tells Louisa, “and that’s humanity’s only defense against death.” A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Free of the foster-care system now that she’s 18, Louisa is truly homeless, but she carries a postcard of one of the world’s most famous paintings in her backpack for comfort and inspiration. Louisa is an aspiring artist, her sketch pads filled with drawings of cockroaches so beautiful they should be called butterflies. A chance meeting with a frail and dying man propels Louisa on an unimaginable journey as her postcard talisman almost literally comes to life. Lost within the panorama of the painting’s seascape are the images of three teens seated at the end of a pier. Now, 25 years after the painting’s creation, one of those teens comes to rescue Louisa and quite possibly himself in the process. What Backman did for curmudgeonly seniors in his beloved debut, A Man Called Ove (2014), he now does for obstreperous teens; namely, he renders them lovable beyond all reason. Their quirks, their fears, their bravado, their vulnerability all come blazing through, exploding in isolated episodes of candor and harrowing moments of defensiveness. Irrepressible humor, boundless grief, and eternal loyalty coalesce in Backman’s tribute to youthful imagination and unfettered faith in art’s power to heal and nurture.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Best-selling Backman's fans will be primed and intrigued by this fresh focus.