The genius friend

Lila and Elena grow up together in a working-class neighborhood in Naples in the fifties, a time when it was unthinkable for girls to waste their time learning. The intelligent Lila has to leave school to go to work. She tries to escape her environment by marrying young. Her best friend Elena is allowed to continue her education, but realizes all too well how much smarter Lila is. And more beautiful.

My Brilliant Friend is the first of Ferrante's four Neapolitan novels, in which she tells with great empathy and in an inimitable style about two women and their lifelong friendship, which revolves as much around love as it does around rivalry. With the story of Lila and Elena, Ferrante also tells the story of a neighborhood, a city and a country in a time of change.