My Brilliant Friend

By Elena Ferrante

Categories: Literature & Fiction

My Brilliant Friend is the first of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels, published in Italian in 2011, about the friendship between two girls in a poor neighbourhood of Naples. In the 1950s, Elena Greco and Lila Cerullo grow up amid the violence and poverty of their neighbourhood, competing at school and depending on each other. As Elena continues her education while Lila is kept from it, their paths begin to diverge, and the novel follows them into adolescence.

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• Natalie Portman: “…made me miss my vacation: Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels—I couldn't stop reading.”