Soon to be an HBO series, book one in the New York Times bestselling Neapolitan quartet about two friends growing up in post-war Italy is a rich, intense, and generous-hearted family epic by Italy’s most beloved and acclaimed writer, Elena Ferrante, “one of the great novelists of our time.” (Roxana Robinson, The New York Times) Beginning in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the … vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Ferrante’s four-volume story spans almost sixty years, as its protagonists, the fiery and unforgettable Lila, and the bookish narrator, Elena, become women, wives, mothers, and leaders, all the while maintaining a complex and at times conflictual friendship. Book one in the series follows Lila and Elena from their first fateful meeting as ten-year-olds through their school years and adolescence.
Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her protagonists.
“An intoxicatingly furious portrait of enmeshed friends,” writes Entertainment Weekly. “Spectacular,” says Maureen Corrigan on NPR’s Fresh Air. “A large, captivating, amiably peopled bildungsroman,” writes James Wood in The New Yorker
Ferrante is one of the world’s great storytellers. With My Brilliant Friend she has given her readers an abundant, generous, and masterfully plotted page-turner that is also a stylish work of literary fiction destined to delight readers for many generations to come.
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A wonderful book written from the perspective of a woman growing up in a poor section of southern Italy. It traces her early life through her adult years.
Read the quartet – couldn’t put it down.
I don’t understand the big hubb bubb about this book. Just Ok.
Difficult to get thru
I did not finish this book.
liked that same characters were followed in sequels
I know everyone loved this book and its companions, but I found I did not care a whet about the characters or the story.
My son bought me this book for Christmas and I couldn’t put it down. Such original and authentic characters. A real life friendship with all of the emotion and twists/turns that life brings lifelong friends.
Many, many loved this book. I enjoyed it but it wasn’t end-a-be-all for me. I honestly have the feeling the next one in the series would click better.
I read it in Italian. Intelligent book,well written, characters stay with you but I expected more
Read the book before you view the HBO special.
Compare the visuals that you formulated to those of the film.
This book and the succeeding books of the quartet are just mind-blowingly good. I was transported to another fascinating world as I raced through all the books about these amazing women and their families and learning so much about post-war Italy and especially Naples.
This is the first of a trilogy, I’m reading the second book now. It’s a really wonderful story, well developed characters, enough action, and excellent writing. Also the descriptions and little side stories about the towns and the country are visually accessible and add to the story. Highly recommend
Highly original characters, brilliantly written. The whole series is addictive.
The first of an extraordinary series. Naples will never be the same!
Really enjoyable story about life in an Italian village through the eyes of two friends. Great characters and wonderful story. Hope that the TV version will do the book justice.
Characters surprising in their complexity despite their young age make day to day life in a lower class stratum of Italian society engaging. The book is written with an adult perspective focused through the self-centered longings of the heart of a child and adolescent. The tug-of-war between the bonds of family and coming-of-age into a peer group is shown with great honesty.
Understanding the human psyche as it relates to gender, class, education, self-actualization, male/female relationships is what this beautifully novel is all about. Must admit that watching the HBO adaptation of the first of the four novels helped me sort out ‘who’s who’ in the foundational “My Brilliant Friend.” Now diving through Book Two and loving every minute.
The HBO adaptation is extraordinary and drew me to the novels which are powerfully engaging.
I wasn’t as caught by this as it seems a lot of people were. I haven’t gone on with the series. But it was well-written.