Name: L'AMIE PRODIGIEUSE 4
Rating: 4.192744755244755 (572 reviews)
ISBN: 9782072740589

ELENA. FERRANTE

L'enfant Perdue

L'AMIE PRODIGIEUSE 4

I would have done anything for her, on that morning of reconciliation: run away from home, leave the neighborhood, sleep in farmhouses, feed on roots, descend into the sewers through the grates, never turn back, not even if it was cold, not even if it rained.

aywen

How sweet everything is, I thought, when the day is fine and every good thing seems to be waiting for you alone. 

Camille

I realized that with those last words she had admitted that I was important to her, and I was happy.

Lila was able to speak through writing; unlike me when I wrote

I read and I saw her, I heard her. The voice set in the writing overwhelmed me, enthralled me even more than when we talked face to face: it was completely cleansed of the dross of speech, of the confusion of the oral;

“Not for you: you're my brilliant friend, you have to be the best of all, boys and girls." 

It's been at least three decades since she told me that she wanted to disappear without leaving a trace, and I'm the only one who knows what she means. She never had in mind any sort of flight, a change of identity, the dream of making a new life somewhere else. And she never thought of suicide, repulsed by the idea that Rino would have anything to do with her body, and be forced to attend to the details. She meant something different: she wanted to vanish; she wanted every one of her cells to disappear, nothing of her ever to be found.

A mysterious inversion of attitudes had occurred: I, despite the rain, would have continued on the road, I felt far from everything and everyone, and distance—I discovered for the first time—extinguished in me every tie and every worry

Thus she returned to the theme of "before," but in a different way than she had at first. She said that we didn't know anything, either as children or now, that we were therefore not in a position to understand anything, that everything in the neighborhood, every stone or piece of wood, everything, anything you could name, was already there before us, but we had grown up without realizing it, without ever even thinking about it.

We told each other everything, even the little things, and were happy. 

Stefano, according to Lila, wanted to clear away everything. 

. He didn't want to pretend it was nothing, as our parents did, but rather to set in notion a phrase like: I know, my father was what he was, but now I'm here, we are us, and so, enough. In other words, he wanted to make the whole neighborhood understand that he was not Don Achille and that the Pelusos were not the former carpenter who had killed him. That hypothesis pleased us, it immediately became a certainty, and we had an impulse of great fondness for the young Carracci. We decided to take his part.

We went to explain to Rino, to Pasquale, to Antonio that Stefano's invitation was more than an invitation, that behind it were important meanings, that it was as if he were saying: before us some ugly things happened; our fathers, some in one way, some in another, didn't behave well; from this moment, we take note of that and show that we children are better than they were.

The fact remains that I, who had successfully completed a theological correspondence course, raised my hand and said that the human condition was so obviously exposed to the blind fury of chance that to trust in a God, a Jesus, the Holy Spirit—this last a completely superfluous entity, it was there only to make up a trinity, notoriously nobler than the mere binomial father-son—was the same thing as collecting trading cards while the city burns in the fires of hell.

Beatrix

I couldn’t believe that he was an ordinary person - a little short, a little bald, a little out of proportion, but ordinary - so I waited for him to be transformed.

‘yes,’ I thought, maybe she’s changing, and not only physically but in the way she expresses herself. It seemed to me, articulated in words of today, that not only did she know how to put things well, but that she was developing a gift, that I was already familiar with, more effectively than she had a la a child she took the facts and in a natural way charged them with tension. She intensified reality, she reduced it to words, she enchanted it with energy. But I also realised with please that as soon as she began to do this I felt able to do the same, and I tried and it came easily.

I felt grieved at the waste, because I was compelled to go away, because she preferred the adventure of shoes to our conversation, because she knew how to be autonomous 

I did not feel homesick…I missed only Lila

good and evil are mixed together and reinforce each other in turn 

I realised how the idea of the riches girls dreamed of was changing further, the treasure chests full of gold pieces that a procession of servants in livery would deposit in our castle when we published a book like Little Women, riches and fame, had truly faded. Perhaps the idea of money, as a cement to solidify our existence and prevent it from dissolving, together with the people who were dear to us, endured.

She spoke with a different sort of determination, calmer, as if it were no longer necessary to fit to the death for every little thing.

Elena Ferrante

A modern masterpiece from one of Italy's most acclaimed authors, My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense, and generous-hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Ferrante's inimitable style lends itself perfectly to a meticulous portrait of these two women that is also the story of a nation and a touching meditation on the nature of friendship. The story begins in the 1950s, in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples. Growing up on these tough streets the two girls learn to rely on each other ahead of anyone or anything else. As they grow, as their paths repeatedly diverge and converge, Elena and Lila remain best friends whose respective destinies are reflected and refracted in the other. They are likewise the embodiments of a nation undergoing momentous change. 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, the unforgettable Elena and Lila. Ferrante is the author of three previous works of critically acclaimed fiction: The Days of Abandonment, Troubling Love, and The Lost Daughter. With this novel, the first in a trilogy, she proves herself to be one of Italy's great storytellers. She has given her readers a masterfully plotted page-turner, abundant and generous in its narrative details and characterizations, that is also a stylish work of literary fiction destined to delight her many fans and win new readers to her fiction.

My Brilliant Friend

such an accurate representation of the complexity female friendships. 

Tiffany 🍒

A modern masterpiece from one of Italy's most acclaimed authors, My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense and generous hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Ferrante's inimitable style lends itself perfectly to a meticulous portrait of these two women that is also the story of a nation and a touching meditation on the nature of friendship. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighbourhood, a city and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her two protagonists.

L'amica geniale #1

Some books feel like they were written with a scalpel. My Brilliant Friend is one of them: precise, unsparing, and deeply attuned to the ways friendship can become a lifelong measure of who we are, who we fear we are not.

Elena Ferrante begins with the disappearance of Lila Cerullo, then takes us back to a brutal postwar Naples neighborhood where Lila and Elena Greco first become friends. They are girls who are bright, ambitious, watchful, and already aware that intelligence alone may not be enough to get them out. The novel’s real force lies in the tension between them: affection and competition, loyalty and resentment, imitation and rebellion. They admire each other intensely, but neither is fully at ease in the other’s presence.

Lila is the book’s electric center: ferociously intelligent, unpredictable, and impossible to reduce to a simple idea of “the brilliant friend.” Elena, meanwhile, is a wonderful narrator precisely because she is not always generous, to Lila or to herself. Her jealousy, insecurity, and hunger for recognition make the friendship feel painfully real. Ferrante understands that the person who inspires you most can also be the person whose approval you spend years chasing.

The Naples of the novel is not just a backdrop. It is a closed, volatile world shaped by poverty, male violence, class hierarchy, family expectation, and the limited futures available to women. Ferrante never turns these realities into a lecture; she lets them seep into every schoolyard rivalry, marriage negotiation, street encounter, and private humiliation.

“We loved each other very much, but we had never said so.”

“The brilliant friend, she had said of me, but I felt that the brilliant one was her.”

“I had the impression that she wanted to give me something that was hers and that I didn’t have.”

Ferrante’s writing is addictive because it refuses easy judgments. These girls can be tender, cruel, funny, ambitious, and selfish, often in the same scene. By the end, I felt less like I had read a novel about friendship than like I had lived inside one: its private language, its shifting power, and its long shadow.

A gripping start to the Neapolitan novels, and an easy five stars.

Erwin Lemuel Oliva

Some books feel like they were written with a scalpel. My Brilliant Friend is one of them: precise, unsparing, and deeply attuned to the ways friendship can become a lifelong measure of who we are, who we fear we are not.

Elena Ferrante begins with the disappearance of Lila Cerullo, then takes us back to a brutal postwar Naples neighborhood where Lila and Elena Greco first become friends. They are girls who are bright, ambitious, watchful, and already aware that intelligence alone may not be enough to get them out. The novel’s real force lies in the tension between them: affection and competition, loyalty and resentment, imitation and rebellion. They admire each other intensely, but neither is fully at ease in the other’s presence.

Lila is the book’s electric center: ferociously intelligent, unpredictable, and impossible to reduce to a simple idea of “the brilliant friend.” Elena, meanwhile, is a wonderful narrator precisely because she is not always generous, to Lila or to herself. Her jealousy, insecurity, and hunger for recognition make the friendship feel painfully real. Ferrante understands that the person who inspires you most can also be the person whose approval you spend years chasing.

The Naples of the novel is not just a backdrop. It is a closed, volatile world shaped by poverty, male violence, class hierarchy, family expectation, and the limited futures available to women. Ferrante never turns these realities into a lecture; she lets them seep into every schoolyard rivalry, marriage negotiation, street encounter, and private humiliation.

A few lines that stayed with me:

“We loved each other very much, but we had never said so.”

“The brilliant friend, she had said of me, but I felt that the brilliant one was her.”

“I had the impression that she wanted to give me something that was hers and that I didn’t have.”

Ferrante’s writing is addictive because it refuses easy judgments. These girls can be tender, cruel, funny, ambitious, and selfish, often in the same scene. By the end, I felt less like I had read a novel about friendship than like I had lived inside one: its private language, its shifting power, and its long shadow.

A gripping start to the Neapolitan novels, and an easy five stars.

everyone and their mama said nice words about this book, so i gave it a try.

at first, for the first quarter of the book, i wasn't really feeling it yet. i couldn't connect with the book, and it felt like i was just overhearing a person talking about her life to another person in an establishment. it was only until half of the book that i suddenly found it more interesting. the scenes were more compelling and there was more action. i'm not used to slow start books, and this might be my first. there were times where i was confused halfway into the story because after not so much happening, suddenly there were more things going on. i was especially confused when the novel stopped at lina's wedding but the novel itself started in the present. that's when i actually searched it up and found out it's a series and this is the first.

what i did like about it, is that it showed me how a friendship can survive the test of time, because the time spent here wasn't boring the entire time and had actually become more eventful as it passed. it showed me how their distinct personalities led to separate paths in life, with lila getting married and lenu continuously pursuing her studies diligently. girl friendships like theirs are timeless, it happens to different generations, which is why i understand many relate to it. 

i was overthinking about what to rate this book. i wouldn't say it'd be a favorite, and in my opinion, i think i'd be less confused if i read the rest of the series, but i would still agree with people if they say positive things about this novel. 

kite

everyone and their mama said nice words about this book, so i gave it a try.

at first, for the first quarter of the book, i wasn't really feeling it yet. i couldn't connect with the book, and it felt like i was just overhearing a person talking about her life to another person in an establishment. it was only until half of the book that i suddenly found it more interesting. the scenes were more compelling and there was more action. i'm not used to slow start books, and this might be my first. there were times where i was confused halfway into the story because after not so much happening, suddenly there were more things going on. i was especially confused when the novel stopped at lina's wedding but the novel itself started in the present. that's when i actually searched it up and found out it's a series and this is the first.

what i did like about it, is that it showed me how a friendship can survive the test of time, because the time spent here wasn't boring the entire time and had actually become more eventful as it passed. it showed me how their distinct personalities led to separate paths in life, with lila getting married and lenu continuously pursuing her studies diligently. girl friendships like theirs are timeless, it happens to different generations, which is why i understand many relate to it. 

i was overthinking about what to rate this book. i wouldn't say it'd be a favorite, and in my opinion, i think i'd be less confused if i read the rest of the series, but i would still agree with people if they say positive things about this novel. 

Did not understand the hype about this book. There was just so much unecessary detail, my head felt like exploding. 

Jovana Gjekanovikj 

Ann Goldstein

A New York Times BestsellerThe Neapolitan Novels (Book 1)A modern masterpice from one of Italy's most acclaimed authors set against the backdrop of a Naples that is as seductive as it is perilous and a world undergoing epochal change, this story of a lifelong friendship is told with unmatched honesty. Lila and Elena clash, drift apart, reconcile, and clash again, in the process revealing new facets of their friendship.With My Brillant Briend Ferrante begins the rich, intense, and generous-hearted portrait of two friends, Elena and Lila. Through their lives, she tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country undergoing momentous change.

Bárbara Borba

It was a struggle to finish this book when the narrator is so annoying, but I finally managed to do it on my fourth try. Even at the end I couldn't remember who some of the characters were and I would've abandoned the book if I were reading it just for fun. (but I'll try the second one anyway)

micca

Storia del nuovo cognome : giovinezza

L'amica geniale

Dani

Bello en su sutileza y lenguaje simple pero de una profundidad enorme

Jennifer

I didn't know there was a white trash version of people in Italy until I read this book. I didn't know anything about poverty in Naples, Italy in the 1950s-60s. I had no idea what a poor girl struggled with in this country and now vastly different it was from being poor in the US. The abuse and violence was shocking to me. I just had no idea, or, I couldn't picture such class warfare in other countries. But, now, I feel like I see how the mafia exists. Also, why is everyone so bitterly angry over seemingly petty events all the time?? On a separate note, I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever been obsessed with a friend and wanted nothing more than to be accepted and loved by this friend, especially in childhood and/or adolescence. But also felt a strange sense of competition with. I think we all have someone like that. Because this book was originally written in Italian, the English translation says things like the character spoke "in dialect" or the character spoke "in formal Italian". Because of this, I feel like anyone who is reading in English is missing out on some crucial nuances. It definitely takes away from whatever is being said. The locations in which certain scenes take place matter, too, and because there's no map in the book for reference, I feel like I'm missing out on more meaning there as well. I could Google it, but I don't care that much.

l🌀

L'amica geniale : Bd. 3: Storia di chi fugge e di chi resta

This book has left me with a feeling of impending doom and i fear that my emotions are in haywire for me to even articulate a reaction. 

march🐇

This book has left me with a feeling of impending doom and i fear that my emotions are in haywire for me to even articulate a reaction. 

Frustratingly good

I swear to God Lenu has gotta ditch Nino, he's the 1950s equivalent of a Letterboxd boy 

Regan Martin

I was expecting to love this book (complicated relationship between childhood besties - relatable), but I really didn’t! Found it very slow with minimal plot, and a disappointing ending. The Nápoles vibe was cool though. I’ll have to do some investigating though as it’s such a beloved book, maybe there’s something i just didn’t get 

Allegrachatterjee

My friendship with Lila began the day we decided to go up the dark stairs that led, step after step, flight after flight, to the door of Don Achille's apartment... I waited to see if Lila would have second thoughts and turn back. I knew what she wanted to do; I had hoped that she would forget about it, but in vain. 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.

The Neapolitan Novels, Book One

rereading this as a woman in my twenties feels like reencountering the original enchantment with the novel, with reading, with books——with language. Ferrante is and always will be sweeping and original; there is a way she writes desire/fear/hunger/hunger/hunger that I haven't been met with anywhere else just yet. leaving this novel feeling like a much younger version of me, trembling with excitement, crafting an argument in my head to justify to my mother why I have to get my hands on the next three books right now

biddy

ferrante's describing rino at the fireworks party... chills +.5 stars for that scene alone. feminine relationship with rivalry and jealousy very well done.

Tom Koss

I waited months to be able to borrow this book. Read glowing reviews about how Ferrante is one of the greatest Italian novelists of our time. And nonetheless, spent 75% of this book thinking to myself “what the helly?” I agree with other reviews that there must be something off with the translation from Italian to English. 

Redeeming factors, that in a strange turn of events left me curious about the next book in the series: The setting. I’m fascinated by Naples and its tortured past. Lenu and Lina’s complicated, enduring female friendship. What happens next for them? 

I don’t think I can put myself through another one of these books, so going to checkout the HBO series instead. 

Kaitlyn Wendler

I waited months to be able to borrow this book. Read glowing reviews about how Ferrante is one of the greatest Italian novelists of our time. And nonetheless, spent 75% of this book thinking to myself “what the helly?” I agree with other reviews that there must be something off with the translation from Italian to English. 

Redeeming factors, that in a strange turn of events left me curious about the next book in the series: The setting. I’m fascinated by Naples and its tortured past. Lenu and Lina’s complicated, enduring female friendship. What happens next for them? 

I don’t think I can put myself through another one of these books, so going to checkout the HBO series instead. 

this was really good. i wasn't sure why it was number 1 book of the century but after the ending i can see why. it touches on themes of love, poverty, and womanhood. 

jules

The start of my favorite series of all time

Janice Adamo

i gobbled this book in like 1.5 days holy fuck. ferrante is SUCH a brilliant storyteller, what with her imagery and dialogue and pacing (the build-up to that final paragraph!). what i was really blown away by was her ability to capture human nature and relationships—especially the titular one—in full breadth, a quality i so love in austen and tolstoy. she illustrates adolescence and childhood insecurities and jealousies and neighborhood conflicts and the desperation of wanting to matter to a dear friend so, so well

alice

This was really so beautiful and so sad. My brilliant friend does such a good job of encapsulating the mind of a young girl. It made me reflect on my younger years and my friendships with other girls at that quite significantly, the love and affection border lining obsession, the envy, the need to replicate and perfect. I felt that once again I was in 2nd grade and couldn’t decide if I loved or hated her, wanted to spend every moment of my life with her or couldn’t stand the thought of being in her shadow anymore. The constant state of being in over your head and never feeling enough.

khwaiish 

This was really so beautiful and so sad. My brilliant friend does such a good job of encapsulating the mind of a young girl. It made me reflect on my younger years and my friendships with other girls at that quite significantly, the love and affection border lining obsession, the envy, the need to replicate and perfect. I felt that once again I was in 2nd grade and couldn’t decide if I loved or hated her, wanted to spend every moment of my life with her or couldn’t stand the thought of being in her shadow anymore. The constant state of being in over your head and never feeling enough.

Splendid

Really captures the essence of girlhood, and how the minor differences result in major changes, and how your background often not only shaped but also forces your future. loved YAY

Stas

Beautiful, immersive writing. A raw, unfiltered look at female friendship thru childhood and adolescence. This book is visceral, there is something so heartbreaking about brilliant young women falling through the cracks, having their dreams crushed by poverty and familial expectations. 

This book was a slow read and some passages were quite dense but it was so worth the time spent. 

Alli

Beautiful, immersive writing. A raw, unfiltered look at female friendship thru childhood and adolescence. This book is visceral, there is something so heartbreaking about brilliant young women falling through the cracks, having their dreams crushed by poverty and familial expectations. 

This book was a slow read and some passages were quite dense but it was so worth the time spent. 

L'AMIE PRODIGIEUSE 4 L'enfant Perdue

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