My Brilliant Friend
The Neapolitan Novels: Book #1
By Elena Ferrante & Ann Goldstein
Narrated by Hillary Huber / 12 hours 37 minutes
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 tetralogy, 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.
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“Ferrante is a subtle subversive; the domestic, in her brilliant books, is a time bomb that ticks too loudly to ignore.”
Lauren Groff, author of Fates and Furies
“Reading Ferrante reminded me of that child-like excitement when you can’t look up from the page, when your eyes seem to be popping from your head, when you think: I didn’t know books could do this!”
Elizabeth Strout
About the Author
Elena Ferrante was born in Naples. She is the author of The Days of Abandonment, Troubling Love, and The Lost Daughter. Her Neapolitan novels include My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, and The Story of The Lost Child, fourth and final volume in the series.
Reviews
“I recommend Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend as the perfect summer read. It is a fascinating novel about the childhood of two very intelligent and creative girls in a poor neighborhood in Naples before the Second World War. I loved watching their young friendship develop; their lives are fraught with extreme physicality and filled with emotional intensity. It’s beautifully written and I can’t wait to read the two sequels that chronicle the girls in their later years.”
Dina Hoffman, Bookshop Santa Cruz
Related Reading
Who Is Elena Ferrante?
New York Times
The Neapolitan Novels Series
My Brilliant Friend
By: Elena Ferrante & Ann Goldstein
Narrated by: Hillary Huber
Length: 12 hours 37 minutes
Abridged: No
A modern masterpiece from one of Italy’s mostacclaimed authors, My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense, andgenerous-hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila, who represent the story of a nation and the nature of friendship.
The story begins inthe 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples.Growing up on these tough... Read More »
The Story of a New Name
By: Elena Ferrante & Ann Goldstein
Narrated by: Hillary Huber
Length: 19 hours 3 minutes
Abridged: No
The Story of a New Name follows Elena Ferrante's critically acclaimed My Brilliant Friend, featuring Lila and Elena. The two protagonists are now in their twenties, and marriage appears to have imprisoned Lila. Meanwhile, Elena continues her journey of self-discovery. These young women share a complex and evolving bond that brings them close at... Read More »
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
By: Elena Ferrante & Ann Goldstein
Narrated by: Hillary Huber
Length: 16 hours 42 minutes
Abridged: No
The incredible story continues in book three of thecritically acclaimed Neapolitan novels!
In this third Neapolitan novel, Elena and Lila, thetwo girls whom readers first met in MyBrilliant Friend, have become women. Lila married at sixteen and has ayoung son; she has left her husband and the comforts her marriage brought andnow works as a common... Read More »
The Story of the Lost Child
By: Elena Ferrante & Ann Goldstein
Narrated by: Hillary Huber
Length: 18 hours 26 minutes
Abridged: No
"Nothing quite like this has ever been published before," proclaimed the Guardian about the Neapolitan Novels in 2014. The first book in the series, My Brilliant Friend, was a New York Times bestseller. Book three was a Times bestseller and a Notable Book of the Year. It was named a best book of 2014 twenty-five times, including in the Times... Read More »
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