My Brilliant Friend

<p><strong>#1 BEST BOOK OF THE CENTURY - <em>NEW YORK TIMES</em></strong></p> <p><strong>Now an HBO series: the first volume in the <em>New York Times</em>–bestselling “enduring masterpiece” about a lifelong friendship between two women from Naples (<em>The Atlantic</em>).</strong></p> <p>Beginning in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Elena Ferrante’s four-volume story spans almost sixty years, as its main characters, 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 conflicted friendship. This first novel in the series follows Lila and Elena from their fateful meeting as ten-year-olds through their school years and adolescence.</p> <p>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 two women. <br><br>“An intoxicatingly furious portrait of enmeshed friends.”—<em>Entertainment Weekly</em> <br><br>“Spectacular.”—Maureen Corrigan, <em>NPR’s Fresh Air</em> <br><br>“Captivating.”—<em>The New Yorker</em></p>