My Friends by Fredrik Backman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Louisa, a homeless 18-year-old artist is “discovered” by a famous artist known as C. Jat. We later find the four letters of his name are actually the first letters of the names of his four friends. The artist realizes Louisa is “one of us” and shortly thereafter dies and leaves Louisa the most valuable of his paintings. She is rich except has no money or place to keep the painting. Ted, the T in Jat, gives her the painting according to the artist’s wishes, but then tries to distance himself from her. Instead she latches onto him to get his help selling the painting. They take a train ride which turns into various misadventures. Eventually Louisa gets from Ted and others the fascinating story/-ies of the artist and his friends and the painting. It is a story of deep love between friends. Of course it’s quite implausible, but that shouldn’t stop the enjoyment. I’d rate it 4 and a half stars but Goodreads doesn’t allow half stars, so I’m rounding up.