My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante - Neapolitan Quartet Book 1 - Fiction - Paperback

Details. Condition: New. Format: Paperback. ISBN: 9781787702226. Publisher: Europa Editions. Age Range: Adult. Overview. My Brilliant Friend is the first novel in Elena Ferrante's internationally acclaimed Neapolitan Quartet, translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein. Set in 1950s Naples, it introduces childhood friends Elena and Lila as they navigate poverty, ambition, and rivalry in a working-class neighbourhood. Named one of the New York Times' Best Books of the Century, it is a searing, unforgettable portrait of female friendship, class, and coming of age in post-war Italy.. About the Book. My Brilliant Friend opens in a poor but vibrant neighbourhood on the outskirts of Naples, where two young girls, Elena Greco and Raffaella "Lila" Cerullo, form an intense, complicated friendship that will shape the rest of their lives. As children, Lila's fierce intelligence and defiance make her the more dazzling of the pair, while Elena watches, studies, and quietly competes to keep pace. Together they navigate a neighbourhood ruled by violence, poverty, and old grudges, where a good marriage or a rare scholarship can mean the difference between escape and a life trapped in the same streets as their parents. Ferrante traces their journey from childhood games through the turbulence of adolescence, as schooling pulls the girls apart, family expectations close in, and the wider forces of a changing Italy begin to reshape the neighbourhood around them. Told through Elena's recollectio...