My Brilliant Friend (Neapolitan Quartet) Paperback

Two girls grow up in a poor neighbourhood on the edge of Naples in the 1950s, bound together by a friendship that is never simply affectionate. Elena Ferrante opens her Neapolitan quartet with Elena and Lila's childhood and adolescence, tracing schooling, family violence, local hierarchies and the first decisions that will pull their lives apart. The narration is retrospective and unsparing, alert to envy and admiration in equal measure, and the neighbourhood itself works almost as a character. This Europa Editions paperback runs to 331 pages. Where it fits: • First volume of the four-book Neapolitan series • Post-war Naples rendered through one working-class neighbourhood • A friendship examined with attention to rivalry as well as loyalty • A 331-page Europa Editions paperback For readers of literary fiction in translation and of long-running series, published by Europa Editions and available at Boipoka.