Every sort of thing happened, at home and outside, every day, but I don’t recall having ever thought that the life we had there was particularly bad. “I feel no nostalgia for our childhood: it was full of violence. The two girls are growing up in a poor area of a poor city in the poorer part of Italy, and Elena acquaints the reader with a suburb used to violence: The neighbourhood is itself a focus of My Brilliant Friend. A poor girl with a fierce intelligence and an undeniable charisma, she chooses Elena as a friend at a young age, and while Elena is never able to rid herself of the feeling of coming off second-best in every possible way (looks, intelligence, sexual allure, success), she feels proud that Lila has singled her out as the only person in her neighbourhood worthy of being her confidante. Lila is a young woman who can’t be pinned down. The story is narrated by Elena, a bookish girl you suspect is an alter-ego of the writer, but the central figure of the novel is her best friend Lila, a character who defies description, both for the reader and Elena herself. It tells the story of two girls growing up in 1950s Naples and is actually the first part of a trilogy. Still, better late than never – and the book was definitely worth waiting for…Įlena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend (translated by Ann Goldstein) is a wonderful novel, one I enjoyed from start to finish. Yep, I’ve got my finger on the pulse all right 😉

You see, while Europa Editions were kind enough to send me a copy of today’s book, the only reason I got an uncorrected proof is that there were no reading copies left – because the book was published last year. While the photo to the left may suggest that I’m at the cutting edge of translated fiction, those with keen eyes may judge that the opposite is the case.

My brilliant friend elena