2. Sheila and Margaux in How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti

After divorcing her husband, Sheila, a 20-something playwright, is introduced to Margaux, a talented painter who instantly inspires her. Heti writes in the prologue of the novel, “I’m sorry, but I’m really glad [Margaux’s] my best friend. If I had known, when I was a baby, that in America there was a baby who was throwing up her hands and saying, first words out of her mouth, Who cares? and that one day she’d be my best friend, I would have relaxed for the next twenty-three years, not a single care in the world.”

The relationship between Sheila and Margaux is not all sunshine and rainbows, though. Heti — who, it’s worth noting, is best friends with artist Margaux Williamson in real life — writes about the balance of best friendship. After all, friendships are unbalanced by nature, and the ability for that friendship to sustain itself has to do entirely with how that balance shifts and evolves.