*I received a copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this opportunity*

These were our bodies, and they were small, far too small, because they couldn't contain all our love.

Sometimes books are hard. Sometimes books are easy. Sometimes they make you laugh, or cry, or ponder, or feel. Sometimes, and only the very best ones do this, they change a part of your chemistry. They peel back a layer and allow a little glimpse into another world, another life, another way to be. They remind you what it means to be young and in love with life, they remind you how lucky you are to be alive and well, they remind you to be thankful for what you have experienced or haven't experienced.

I always feel a little raw after reading one of Backman's stories, and MY FRIENDS is no different. Fredrik Backman has an uncanny ability to tell a story around an idea; and at the heart of this story is what it means to love. Not in a romantic sense, but the marrow deep love you have for your childhood friends, your parents, your children, the helpless bird you find in the grass and decide to nurse back to health, your kindred souls. 

This book will give you as much as you let it, and dear reader, I hope you approach it with an open heart and mind.