Elena Ferrante

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.

My Brilliant Friend

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.

Annie Millman

Vesuvius was a delicate pastel-colored shape, at whose base the whitish stones of the city were piled up, with the earth-colored slice of the Castel dell’Ovo, and the sea. But what a sea. It was very rough, and loud; the wind took your breath away, pasted your clothes to your body and blew the hair off your forehead. We stayed on the other side of the street in a small crowd, watching the spectacle. The waves rolled in like blue metal tubes carrying an egg white of foam on their peaks, then broke in a thousand glittering splinters and came up to the street with an oh of wonder and fear from those watching. What a pity that Lila wasn’t there. I felt dazed by the powerful gusts, by the noise. I had the impression that, although I was absorbing much of that sight, many things, too many, were scattering around me without letting me grasp them.

At the start of the summer I began to have a feeling difficult to put into words. I saw that she was agitated, aggressive as she had always been, and I was pleased, I recognized her. But I also felt, behind her old habits, a pain that bothered me. She was suffering, and I didn't like her sorrow. I preferred her when she was different from me, distant from my anxieties. And the uneasiness that the discovery of her fragility brought me was transformed by secret pathways into a need of my own to be superior.

Macy HB

There are no gestures, words, or sighs that do not contain the sum of all the crimes that human beings have committed and commit.

The story of Elena and Lila begins in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighbourhood 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 their friendship, beautifully and meticulously rendered, becomes a not-always-perfect shelter from hardship. A memorable portrait of two women, My Brilliant Friend is also the story of a nation. Through the lives of Elena and Lila, Ferrante gives her readers the story of a city and a country undergoing momentous change.

Jemima Scott

‘…there are no gestures, words, or sighs that do not contain the sum of all the crimes that human beings have committed and commit.’

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

Beatrix

At that moment I knew what the plebs were, much more clearly than when years earlier [Maestra Oliviero] had asked me. The plebs were us. The plebs were that fight for the food and wine, that quarrel over who should be served first and better, that dirty floor on which the waiters clattered back and forth, those increasingly vulgar toasts. The plebs were my mother who had drunk wine and now was leaning against my father’s shoulder while he, serious, laughed, his mouth gaping at the sexual allusions of the metal dealer. They were all laughing, even Lila, with the expression of one who has a role and will play it to the upmost.

And I saw that I had hurt her, and she had hurt me.

‘..we are flying over a ball of fire, the part that has cooled floats on the lava, on that part we construct the buildings, the bridges and the streets and every so often the lava comes out of Vesuvius or causes an earthquake that destroys everything. There are microbes everywhere that make us sick and die, there are wars, there is a poverty that makes us all cruel. Every second something might happen that will cause you such suffering that you’ll never have enough tears and what are you doing..’

… I had school, (a privilege she had lost forever), that is my wealth

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.

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.

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

I did not feel homesick…I missed only Lila

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 

‘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 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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Oscar Kömpel

A memoir style novel showing the ins and outs of a poor Italian neighborhood in Naples in the 1950s. Lenu and Lila grow up together in a place where everyone knows each other, and no one ever moves away. The neighborhood is harsh and the expectations of men and women enforce a culture that is often oppressive, violent, and ugly. 

Their relationship is sometimes relatable as it revolves around the jealousy, competition, and love between young people growing up together. At other times, I found the way Lenu’s every decision in life revolved around Lila to be strange and borderline obsessive. 

This book was very different from anything  I’ve ever read, and I found it to be a refreshing, thought provoking read. 

Jacqui Spears

A memoir style novel showing the ins and outs of a poor Italian neighborhood in Naples in the 1950s. Lenu and Lila grow up together in a place where everyone knows each other, and no one ever moves away. The neighborhood is harsh and the expectations of men and women enforce a culture that is often oppressive, violent, and ugly. 

Their relationship is sometimes relatable as it revolves around the jealousy, competition, and love between young people growing up together. At other times, I found the way Lenu’s every decision in life revolved around Lila to be strange and borderline obsessive. 

This book was very different from anything  I’ve ever read, and I found it to be a refreshing, thought provoking read. 

« i was blind, she a falcon; i had an opaque pupil, she narrowed her eyes, with darting glances that saw more; i clung to her arm, among the shadows, she guided me with a stern gaze. »

it took me a bit to get used to ferrante's writing style because it felt like this was more like a conversation rather than a novel, and i did like this very much.

this book and the other three have been recommended to me many, many times and i'm very happy i did read it but also. i'm not sure where i stand on it?

this was a beautiful exploration of female friendship during mid 20th century italy, post war naples. i truly enjoyed this aspect i haven't really read before, and i got attached to lila and elena. their successes, their struggles, their thoughts. it all felt very close. i do think i will try and find the rest of the neapolitan quartet, however i think it must be read in italian. the translation was really well done but sometimes books must be read in their original language to understand the author better.

florine

« i was blind, she a falcon; i had an opaque pupil, she narrowed her eyes, with darting glances that saw more; i clung to her arm, among the shadows, she guided me with a stern gaze. »

it took me a bit to get used to ferrante's writing style because it felt like this was more like a conversation rather than a novel, and i did like this very much.

this book and the other three have been recommended to me many, many times and i'm very happy i did read it but also. i'm not sure where i stand on it?

this was a beautiful exploration of female friendship during mid 20th century italy, post war naples. i truly enjoyed this aspect i haven't really read before, and i got attached to lila and elena. their successes, their struggles, their thoughts. it all felt very close. i do think i will try and find the rest of the neapolitan quartet, however i think it must be read in italian. the translation was really well done but sometimes books must be read in their original language to understand the author better.

"Je ne suis pas nostalgique de notre enfance : elle était pleine de violence. C'était la vie, un point c'est tout : et nous grandissions avec l'obligation de la rendre difficile aux autres avant que les autres ne nous la rendent difficile." Elena et Lila vivent dans un quartier pauvre de Naples à la fin des années cinquante. Bien qu'elles soient douées pour les études, ce n'est pas la voie qui leur est promise. Lila abandonne l'école pour travailler dans l'échoppe de cordonnier de son père. Elena, soutenue par son institutrice, ira au collège puis au lycée. Les chemins des deux amies se croisent et s'éloignent, avec pour toile de fond une Naples sombre, en ébullition. Formidable voyage dans l'Italie du boom économique, L'amie prodigieuse est le portrait de deux héroïnes inoubliables qu'Elena Ferrante traque avec passion et tendresse.

Enfance, adolescence

L'amie prodigieuse

Ce livre m'a marqué par la profondeur que Ferrante a réussit à mettre dans ses personnages et dans leurs relations. L'amitié des deux filles est empreinte de jalousie et de non-dits. L'amitié n'est pas idéalisé par l'auteur, les deux amies s'aiment autant qu'elles s'envient. L'écriture est magnifique et la traduction également, se lit très facilement et je vais lire la suite.

Claire rosaenz

My expectations were perhaps a bit too high (how could they not be, that’s no one’s fault but the NYT 100 list :P). It didn’t floor me but I liked it a LOT. 

Masterful descriptions of eerily specific and nuanced feelings of adolescence and female friendship, the way that men have this (time/era-defying, everlasting) capacity to make you feel small/steamroll over everything. 

Soap-opera esque, page-turner.. I look forward to reading the rest of the series! 

My expectations were perhaps a bit too high (how could they not be, that’s no one’s fault but the NYT 100 list :P). It didn’t floor me but I liked it a LOT. 

Masterful descriptions of eerily specific and nuanced feelings of adolescence and female friendship, the way that men have this (time/era-defying, everlasting) capacity to make you feel small/steamroll over everything. 

Soap-opera esque, page-turner.. I look forward to reading the rest of the series! 

this is what happens when u dont check if the book is part of a trilogy or not. i have no energy to commit to a trilogy yet so i guess ill be spending my days plagued by that ending. 

Sohini Roy

kind of slow, but the ending had me gagged. i think the depiction of lila and lenu’s friendship was well done, but i kept confusing certain characters and no one was particularly likable. i do plan on reading the next book in the series though bc what even was that ending

Narration is so important to this novel and the lack of flowery descriptions is a good thing! Ferrante stayed things and ideas so plainly they become real, and she did a great job changing our narrator’s language as she ages up in this novel. The parts describing Don Achille and pretty much any sewer inhabitant is quite the jump from what the reader gets used to when falling in cadence with Lenù’s inner dialogue, that was probably my favorite part of the whole shebang. It’s not often we get a series that’s not centered in science-fi or fantasy, especially chronicling these women’s lives so throughly and with a rich cast of characters! I’m looking forward to reading more to finally catch up to that first chapter.

Eli Alvah Huckabee

isabelle

how beautifully does Elena Ferrante write. i would have read it again and again just for the beautiful writing. Slightly slow-paced and boring in the first five chapters but later on, i was hooked. 

sani

Naples, fin des années cinquante. Deux amies, Elena et Lila, vivent dans un quartier défavorisé de la ville, leurs familles sont pauvres et, bien qu'elles soient douées pour les études, ce n'est pas la voie qui leur est promise. Lila, la surdouée, abandonne rapidement l'école pour travailler avec son père et son frère dans leur échoppe de cordonnier. En revanche, Elena est soutenue par son institutrice, qui pousse ses parents à l'envoyer au collège puis, plus tard, au lycée, comme les enfants des Carracci et des Sarratore, des familles plus aisées qui peuvent se le permettre. Durant cette période, les deux jeunes filles se transforment physiquement et psychologiquement, s'entraident ou s'en prennent l'une à l'autre. Leurs chemins parfois se croisent et d'autres fois s'écartent, avec pour toile de fond une Naples sombre mais en ébullition, violente et dure. Des chemins qui les conduiront, après le passage par l'adolescence, à l'aube de l'âge adulte, non sans ruptures ni souffrances. Formidable voyage dans Naples et dans l'Italie du boom économique, L'amie prodigieuse trace le portrait de deux héroïnes inoubliables, qu'Elena Ferrante traque avec passion et tendresse jusqu'au plus profond de leur âme.

arwen

« Et toi, tu aimes Stefano ? » Elle dit, sérieuse : « Beaucoup. — Plus que tes parents, plus que Rino ? — Plus que tout le monde, mais pas plus que toi. » 🙁🙁🙁

 wen

Lindy

Lindy, you may find yourself asking,  how is it possible you haven't read this book until now? 

And my honest response is that I was put off by the cover which looks like it belongs to a work of early 1990s Christian "inspirational" fiction. 

Anyway, not sure all the exposition was necessary, but the last few chapters convinced me that all the praise heaped upon My Brilliant Friend is deserved.

Maria

i will write a proper review once i finish the entire series, but i loved the way the book and world around it unfolds as lila and elena grow up and start questioning their lives and the order of things. it gave me the sense that i was growing up with them. i loved the way naples is not only a setting but a character in itself, so vivid and present that it’s impossible to ignore or forget about it.

one thing though is that at times i found the translation to be a bit clunky, i don’t know if that was intended or if it just is.

immerses you entirely, she’s a genius. lenù and lila are such richly, brilliantly drawn characters. ferrante methodically unpacks the violence of patriarchy and poverty

lauren amitirigala

Ana Luiza

Um estudo de personagem muito interessante. Lenu é muito querida e torci pelo sucesso dela, tive certo ressentimento de Lila, o que acho que aconteceu unica e puramente pela narração ser pelo ponto de vista de Lenu. Mas acho isso muito legal, essa ideia de confiar e não confiar no narrador que me foi introduzida lá em Machado de Assis mas que funciona muito bem até hoje. Já o restante dos personagens, a vila, a ambientação, não me foi muito tocante e não me apeguei. Sinto que perdi um pouco da história por ter lido em inglês. Apesar de ler a maioria dos livros em inglês hoje em dia, essa história foi um pouco difícil, com seu vocabulários mais clássico e as palavras em italiano misturadas. No começo estava gostando demais, mas depois de uns 15% comecei a perder um pouco do interesse, apesar de adoras histórias que simplesmente contam a vida do personagem, a vida de Lenu e Lina tinha poucos acontecimentos que eu considerava importante. A partir de uns 60% comecei a me interessar novamente, e li muito mais rápido, mas sempre sentindo certa distância dos personagens.
Não sei se posso atribuir isso ao livro ou se foi realmente uma barreira linguística que me deixou tão alheia a história. O tempo todo eu sentia que estava lendo algo maravilhoso que eu não conseguia alcançar. De qualquer forma, o final me deixou curiosa quanto ao restante da série, mas acho que lerei em português :)

Books on childhood and adolescence of girls are rarely this raw and vulnerable; reading all of Lenù's complicated emotions as she grows and tries to find her place in the world, and over everything her love and devotion to Lila, made my heart pound as I flipped the pages. Ferrante's writing is very vibrant, timeless and engaging, and I find myself wanting to read more and more. Fully immersed in the Neapolitan Novels universe.

deniz

such beautiful writing — stunning representation of the wonders and torments of girlhood / friendship / growing up / carving a place for yourself in the world. can’t wait to read the rest of the series

petrina

Zahra

"Je ne suis pas nostalgique de notre enfance : elle était pleine de violence. C’était la vie, un point c’est tout : et nous grandissions avec l'obligation de la rendre difficile aux autres avant que les autres ne nous la rendent difficile." Elena et Lila vivent dans un quartier pauvre de Naples à la fin des années cinquante. Bien qu’elles soient douées pour les études, ce n’est pas la voie qui leur est promise. Lila abandonne l’école pour travailler dans l’échoppe de cordonnier de son père. Elena, soutenue par son institutrice, ira au collège puis au lycée. Les chemins des deux amies se croisent et s’éloignent, avec pour toile de fond une Naples sombre, en ébullition. Formidable voyage dans l’Italie du boom économique, L’amie prodigieuse est le portrait de deux héroïnes inoubliables qu’Elena Ferrante traque avec passion et tendresse.

"Je ne suis pas nostalgique de notre enfance : elle était pleine de violence. Il nous arrivait toutes sortes d'histoires, chez nous et à l'extérieur, jour après jour; mais je ne crois pas avoir jamais pensé que la vie qui nous était échue fût particulièrement mauvaise. C'était la vie, un point c'est tout : et nous grandissions avec l'obligation de la rendre difficile aux autres avant que les autres ne nous la rendent difficile. " 

---------------------------------

Une histoire émouvante de deux “frennemies” grandissant ensemble, qui s'étend sur des décennies dans le contexte unique de Naples dans les années 1950. 

Oscillant entre l’envie et l’admiration, la haine et l'amour, le dévouement et l'égoïsme, la dynamique entre Lenu et Lila est pour le moins complexe et captivante.
D'une certaine manière, les deux filles rivalisent toute leur vie pour prouver que chacune est digne de rester dans la vie de l'autre, craignant d'être oubliée, d'être ennuyeuse ou inférieure. Elles doivent être rivales, pas nécessairement à la fin d'être supérieure mais pour la sécurité émotionnelle.

Dans l’ensemble, il ne se passe pas grand-chose dans l’histoire pendant que les filles grandissent, de l’enfance à l’adolescence, mais je l’ai néanmoins trouvée très intéressante et captivante.

Jasmine Ghartey

"𝙄 𝙝𝙖𝙙 𝙣𝙤 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙢𝙮𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙚𝙭𝙘𝙚𝙥𝙩 𝙝𝙚𝙧"

ferrante's storytelling abilities are unmatched, reading this was an entirely different experience from books previously read and I don't know how she did it. this book is a little over 300 pages yet it felt twice as long, in the best way possible. there were so many experiences and events that felt so far in the past but they were only 20 pages away and this might be because of how ferrante structures her novels. I also commend the translator, ann goldstein, for doing an amazing job as well. sometimes I forget about the work and talent of translators that allow everyone to experience these beautiful works of literature. 

lila and elena have the most beautifully complex relationship i've read about. they're jealous and possessive and competitive but they also love each other so deeply and want the best for the other, even if they don't always know how to show it or put their ego aside to let the other know how appreciative they are to have one another. 

I think a lot of their actions also stem from the pressures of growing up in a society of false perfection that's placed on young women. being skinny, but not too skinny. being intelligent, but only to a certain extent because marriage should be the focus. consistently walking the line between doing enough and falling behind. 

this was such a sweet, emotional, frustrating, exciting and beautiful read. I haven't seen a review on this book that isn't glowing, the structure and writing style are unique and it allowed me to really immerse myself in their environment. I'm normally not someone who procrastinates on finishing a book because I don't want it to end, but I did with this one. (good thing there's 3 more lol) 

I loved it, to say the least.

Shalini Basu

I started this book with a hope that I will like it, ended it with a realisation that I hated the whole of it till the end.I didn’t enjoy the children but I got hooked to how they changed from their early teens.gotta get a hand on the sequel just to read how they develop as young adults.

My Brilliant Friend

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