[zachguo]

Designing Data-Intensive Applications https://dataintensive.net/

[Lordarminius]

Came to recommend the same book. However,if your friend is a newbie to programming I doubt he will gain anything from reading such an advanced book.

[tjadowski]

Thanks a lot, you are right, probably it's above his level now :). But when he will be more advanced this book covers his needs I think.