My Brilliant Friend (L’amica geniale #1) [B1494]

2024 41st PB printing of the 2012 original English translation, in excellent condition. Named the #1 Book of the 21st Century by the New York Times. The "enduring classic" about the lifelong friendship of two women from Naples (The Atlantic). Basis for the award-winning Italian HBO series.

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. 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. "An intoxicatingly furious portrait of enmeshed friends." -Entertainment Weekly

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "Read this to see what all the fuss was about, and it is good. Exquisite awareness of the emotional state of others."; "When you read this book, you dive into a world of its own. At first I was a bit bored with the stories of the girls as kids, but as the story progresses you realize why it was important to get to know them & the neighborhood from that age on."; "What do you mean these characters aren't real people? They're the most honest characters and friendship I've ever seen in a book, like ever."; "This book really goes from meandering childhood joy to the pain of growing up and reckoning with the way the world treats different individuals. The way I gasped on the last page -- I get all the hype. Immediately started book 2."; "my all time fave!!! read this in multiple languages, watched the show, re-read it after that. it doesn't get old!"