Read this when
My Brilliant Friend
She's your best friend. She's also the person you compare yourself to every single day. 💔 Ferrante gets the love/envy thing like nobody else.
Who it's for
Elena tells the story of her lifelong friendship with Lila with unusual honesty: she admires Lila, depends on her, copies her, resents her and measures every achievement against her.
Feelings it meets
What it is
The first of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels, translated into English by Ann Goldstein. Prompted by news that her childhood friend Lila has vanished, Elena Greco sets down the history of their friendship, beginning in a poor, violent neighbourhood of 1950s Naples.
Where to find it
In print (Europa Editions); widely available from libraries (Libby/Hoopla) and as an audiobook. Not public domain. Also adapted as HBO's My Brilliant Friend.
Before you start
Heads up: Sexual abuse of a teen and child abuse.
Age: Ages 16+
There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide;Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays: First Series, “Self-Reliance”
