My Brilliant Friend

'Gutsy and compulsively readable ... One of the more nuanced portraits of feminine friendship in recent memory ... Ferrante wisely balances her memoir-like emotional authenticity with a wry sociological understanding of a society on the verge of dramatic change.' -Vogue 'Everyone should read anything with [Elena Ferrante's] name on it.' - The Boston Globe 'Beautifully translated by Ann Goldstein...[Ferrante] writes with a ferocious, intimate urgency.' - The San Francisco Chronicle My...
More Description

'Gutsy and compulsively readable ... One of the more nuanced portraits of feminine friendship in recent memory ... Ferrante wisely balances her memoir-like emotional authenticity with a wry sociological understanding of a society on the verge of dramatic change.' -Vogue 'Everyone should read anything with [Elena Ferrante's] name on it.' - The Boston Globe 'Beautifully translated by Ann Goldstein...[Ferrante] writes with a ferocious, intimate urgency.' - The San Francisco Chronicle My Brilliant Friend is a ravishing, wonderfully written novel about a friendship that lasts a lifetime. The story of Elena and Lila begins in a poor but vibrant neighbourhood on the outskirts of Naples. The two girls learn to rely on each other ahead of anyone or anything else, sometimes to their own detriment, as each discovers more about who she is and suffers or delights in the throes of their intense friendship. There is a piercing honesty about Ferrante's prose that makes My Brilliant Friend a compulsively readable portrait of two young women, and also the story of a neighbourhood, a city and a country.