Best Selling Books by Elena Ferrante

A novel in the bestselling quartet about two very different women and their complex friendship: “Everyone should read anything with Ferrante’s name on it” (The Boston Globe). The follow-up to My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name continues the epic New York Times–bestselling literary quartet that has inspired an HBO series, and returns us to the world of Lila and Elena, who grew up together in post-WWII Naples, Italy. In The Story of a New Name, Lila has recently married and made her entrée into the family business; Elena, meanwhile, continues her studies and her exploration of the world beyond the neighborhood that she so often finds stifling. Marriage appears to have imprisoned Lila, and the pressure to excel is at times too much for Elena. Yet the two young women share a complex and evolving bond that is central to their emotional lives and a source of strength in the face of life’s challenges. In these Neapolitan Novels, Elena Ferrante, “one of the great novelists of our time” (The New York Times), gives us a poignant and universal story about friendship and belonging, a meditation on love and jealousy, freedom and commitment—at once a masterfully plotted page-turner and an intense, generous-hearted family saga. “Imagine if Jane Austen got angry and you’ll have some idea of how explosive these works are.” —The Australian “Brilliant . . . captivating and insightful . . . the richness of her storytelling is likely to please fans of Sara Gruen and Silvia Avallone.” —Booklist (starred review)

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). 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 “Spectacular.” —Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air “Captivating.” —The New Yorker Basis for the HBO series

Part of the bestselling saga about childhood friends following different paths by “one of the great novelists of our time” (The New York Times). In the third book in the New York Times–bestselling Neapolitan quartet that inspired the HBO series My Brilliant Friend, Elena and Lila have grown into womanhood. Lila married at sixteen and has a young son; she has left her husband and the comforts her marriage brought and now works as a common laborer. Elena has left the neighborhood, earned her college degree, and published a successful novel, all of which has opened the doors to a world of learned interlocutors and richly furnished salons. Both women are pushing against the walls of a prison that would have seen them living a life of misery, ignorance, and submission. They are afloat on the great sea of opportunities that opened up for women during the 1970s. And yet, they are still very much bound to each other in a book that “shows off Ferrante’s strong storytelling ability and will leave readers eager for the final volume of the series” (Library Journal). “One of modern fiction’s richest portraits of a friendship.” —NPR

The “stunning conclusion” to the bestselling saga of the fierce lifelong bond between two women, from a gritty Naples childhood through old age (Publishers Weekly, starred review). One of the New York Timesu200b’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century The Story of the Lost Child concludes the dazzling saga of two women, the brilliant, bookish Elena and the fiery, uncontainable Lila, who first met amid the shambles of postwar Italy. In this book, life’s great discoveries have been made; its vagaries and losses have been suffered. Through it all, the women’s friendship remains the gravitational center of their lives. Both women once fought to escape the neighborhood in which they grew up. Elena married, moved to Florence, started a family, and published several well-received books. But now, she has returned to Naples to be with the man she has always loved. Lila, on the other hand, never succeeded in freeing herself from Naples. She has become a successful entrepreneur, but her success draws her into closer proximity with the nepotism, chauvinism, and criminal violence that infect her neighborhood. Yet, somehow, this proximity to a world she has always rejected only brings her role as unacknowledged leader of that world into relief. “Lila is a magnificent character.” —The Atlantic “Everyone should read anything with Ferrante’s name on it.” —The Boston Globe

From the New York Times–bestselling author of My Brilliant Friend, this novel of a deserted wife’s descent into despair—and rage—is “a masterpiece” (The Philadelphia Inquirer). One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century The Days of Abandonment is the gripping story of an Italian woman’s experiences after being suddenly left by her husband after fifteen years of marriage. With two young children to care for, Olga finds it more and more difficult to do the things she used to: keep a spotless house, cook meals with creativity and passion, refrain from using obscenities. After running into her husband with his much-younger new lover in public, she cannot even refrain from assaulting him physically. In a “raging, torrential voice” (The New York Times), Olga conveys her journey from denial to devastating emptiness—and when she finds herself literally trapped within the four walls of their high-rise apartment, she is forced to confront her ghosts, the potential loss of her own identity, and the possibility that life may never return to normal. “Quick, furious, simultaneously steely and unhinged, and completely mesmerizing.” —The New York Times “Intelligent and darkly comic.” —Publishers Weekly “Remarkable, lucid, austerely honest.” —The New Yorker

A woman goes home to Naples after her mother’s mysterious death in a “tour de force” by the New York Times–bestselling author of My Brilliant Friend (Seattle Times). Following her mother’s untimely and unexplained drowning, which was preceded by a series of strange phone calls, forty-five-year-old Delia leaves Rome and embarks on a voyage of discovery through the beguiling yet often hostile streets of her native Naples. She is searching for the truth about her family and the men in her mother’s life, past and present, including an abusive husband. What she discovers will be more unsettling than she imagines, but will also reveal truths about herself, in this psychological mystery marked by “tactile, beautifully restrained prose” (Publishers Weekly) about mothers and daughters and the complicated knot of lies and emotions that binds them. “Ferrante’s polished language belies the rawness of her imagery.” —The New Yorker “With the quick-paced mystery guiding the story, Delia explores her relationship with her mother, unraveling memories and secrets repressed since childhood and coming to terms with an upbringing filled with jealousy and violence . . . Troubling Love is vivid and powerful.” —Library Journal

A hardback gift edition of the global literary sensation. The story of Elena and Lila begins in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighbourhood on the outskirts of Naples. They learn to rely on each other and discover that their destinies are bound up in the intensity of their relationship. Elena Ferrante’s piercingly honest portrait of two girls’ path into womanhood is also the story of a nation and a meditation on the nature of friendship itself. My Brilliant Friend is a modern masterpiece, the work of one of Italy’s great storytellers.

A deluxe cloth hardcover with sprayed edges and colored end papers illustrating the Bay of Naples. #1 BEST BOOK OF THE CENTURY - NEW YORK TIMES "An unconditional masterpiece." --Jhumpa Lahiri When Elena Ferrante set out to write the story of Elena and Lila, she conceived it as one single work of fiction, one expansive novel that would capture the reality and ambivalence of female friendship, motherhood, marriage, class and adolescence. 2025 marks 10 years since publication of the quartet was completed. To celebrate this anniversary, as well as honour and acknowledge the author''s original conception, we are releasing the four novels in one volume. Described by the New Yorker''s James Wood as "large, captivating, amiably peopled...a beautiful and delicate tale of confluence and reversal," the Neapolitan Quartet tells a poignant, universal story about friendship and belonging. "The capacity of stories to speak to anyone and in any time is the fruit of a mysterious mixture of sensibility, ability, and luck, and no writer really knows how that fruit ripens and if it has fully matured."--Elena Ferrante

Reflections on reading and writing from the author of My Brilliant Friend.

One of The Guardian’s Best Books of the Year: Personal writings by the anonymous author who became a literary phenomenon with My Brilliant Friend. The writer known as Elena Ferrante has taken pains to hide her identity in the hope that readers would focus on her body of work. But in this volume, she invites us into Elena Ferrante’s workshop and offers a glimpse into the drawers of her writing desk—those drawers from which emerged her three early standalone novels and the four installments of the Neapolitan Novels, the New York Times–bestselling “enduring masterpiece” (The Atlantic). Consisting of over twenty years of letters, essays, reflections, and interviews, it is a unique depiction of an author who embodies a consummate passion for writing. In these pages, Ferrante answers many of her readers’ questions. She addresses her choice to stand aside and let her books live autonomous lives. She discusses her thoughts and concerns as her novels are being adapted into films. She talks about the challenge of finding concise answers to interview questions. She explains the joys and the struggles of writing, the anguish of composing a story only to discover that that story isn’t good enough. She contemplates her relationship with psychoanalysis, with the cities she has lived in, with motherhood, with feminism, and with her childhood as a storehouse for memories, impressions, and fantasies. The result is a vibrant and intimate self-portrait of a writer at work. “Everyone should read anything with Ferrante’s name on it.” —The Boston Globe

The Story of a New Name is an extraordinary novel about two young women, Lila and Elena, growing up in Naples in the early 1960s. At sixteen Lila marries the shopkeeper Stefano. She is filled with pleasure at her new wealth, and horror at the life she has chosen. Elena''s own attempts at romance seem to be sabotaged by Lila''s turbulent affairs. As she tries to plot her way out of poverty via academic and literary success, her constant anxiety is that she is just a shadow of the brilliant Lila. The sequel to My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name continues the enthralling chronicle of a friendship that is obsessive, loving, complicated, hurtful, enduring and constantly startling. It is an exhilarating reading experience.

A “beautifully written” dark fable from a doll’s point of view—by the New York Times–bestselling author of The Lost Daughter and the Neapolitan Novels (The Washington Post). One of NPR’s Best Books of the Year. Readers of Elena Ferrante’s The Lost Daughter may recall the little doll—lost or stolen—around which that novel revolves. Here, Ferrante retells the tale from the doll’s perspective. Celina is having a terrible night, one full of jealousy for the new kitten, Minù; feelings of abandonment and sadness; misadventures at the hands of the beach attendant; and dark dreams. But she will be happily found by Mati, her child, once the sun rises . . . “Everyone should read anything with Ferrante’s name on it.” —The Boston Globe

The author of "The Days of Abandonment" pens her most compelling and perceptive meditation on womanhood and motherhood yet.

My friendship with Lila began the day we decided to go up the dark stairs that led, step after step, flight after flight, to the door of Don Achille''s apartment... I waited to see if Lila would have second thoughts and turn back. I knew what she wanted to do; I had hoped that she would forget about it, but in vain. My Brilliant Friend is a ravishing, wonderfully written novel about a friendship that lasts a lifetime. The story of Elena and Lila begins in a poor but vibrant neighbourhood on the outskirts of Naples. The two girls learn to rely on each other ahead of anyone or anything else, sometimes to their own detriment, as each discovers more about who she is and suffers or delights in the throes of their intense friendship. There is a piercing honesty about Ferrante''s prose that makes My Brilliant Friend a compulsively readable portrait of two young women, and also the story of a neighbourhood, a city and a country.

“Fifty-one columns, short in length but long on wisdom” from the bestselling author of My Brilliant Friend, an HBO original series (Minneapolis Star-Tribune). Collected here for the first time are the seeds of future novels, the timely reflections of this internationally beloved storyteller, the abiding preoccupations of a writer who has been called “one of the great novelists of our time” (The New York Times). “This is my last column, after a year that has scared and inspired me . . . I have written as an author of novels, taking on matters that are important to me and that—if I have the will and the time—I’d like to develop within real narrative mechanisms.” With these words, Elena Ferrante bid farewell to her year-long collaboration with the Guardian newspaper. For a full year, she wrote weekly articles, the subjects of which had been suggested by Guardian editors, making the writing process a sort of prolonged interlocution. The subjects ranged from first love to climate change, from enmity among women to the experience of seeing her novels adapted for film and TV. Translated by Ann Goldstein, the acclaimed translator of Ferrante’s novels, and accompanied by Andrea Ucini’s intelligent, witty, and beautiful illustrations, this volume is a must for all curious readers. “A masterclass in style: direct and clear and all the more resonant for it.” —The Saturday Paper “If you are interested in the experience of having a drink with the author and listening to her muse on various subjects . . . here’s your answer.” —Vulture

"Nothing quite like this has ever been published before," proclaimed The Guardian about the Neapolitan novels in 2014. Against the backdrop of a Naples that is as seductive as it is perilous and a world undergoing epochal change, Elena Ferrante tells the story of a sixty-year friendship between the brilliant and bookish Elena and the fiery, rebellious Lila with unmatched honesty and brilliance. The four books in this novel cycle constitute a long, remarkable story, one that Vogue described as "gutsy and compulsively readable," which readers will return to again and again, and each return will bring with it new revelations.

La niña perdida pone punto final a «Dos amigas», la historia de dos amigas que nacieron a mediados del siglo XX en Nápoles. UNA SAGA MEMORABLE Lina y Elena son ahora adultas y han tomado caminos distintos: Elena dejó Nápoles para casarse y convertirse en una escritora de éxito en Florencia. Solo un amor de juventud que vuelve a florecer la devolverá a Nápoles, donde la espera Lina, que ahora es madre y además ha triunfado muy a su manera en el negocio local. Elena es la señora culta, Lina es en apariencia la mujer de barrio, ignorante y poco dispuesta al refinamiento, pero la inteligencia pura y la intuición están del lado de Lina. Los hechos se precipitan cuando un buen día de repente, la hija de Lina desaparece: ¿asesinato, rapto, muerte? Nadie sabe, y el barrio murmura. Desde entonces, Lina ya no es la misma y la locura acecha. Todo -los hombres, las mujeres, el paisaje, la ciudad entera de Nápoles- se convierten en testigos del duelo de una madre que no sabe llorar y un buen día también desaparecerá, devolviendo al lector a las primeras páginas de esta espléndida saga. Inteligencia, emoción contenida, escritura que se pliega a los acontecimientos y se ajusta como un guante a la trama: todo está en estas páginas donde se ha ido cosiendo una de las obras más brillantes del siglo XXI. «Quería contar solo la vida de dos mujeres. Y para hacerlo era necesario que filtrara la historia en el trasfondo de sus existencias, las cosas que de un modo u otro tenían que ver con ellas. Me gustaría que el relato ayudase a contemplar en términos narrativos un pedazo de la historia de Italia.».-Elena Ferrante ENGLISH DESCRIPTION Soon to be an HBO series, book four in the New York Times bestselling Neapolitan quartet about two friends in post-war Italy is a rich, intense, and generous-hearted epic by one of today''s most beloved and acclaimed writers, Elena Ferrante, "one of the great novelists of our time." (Roxana Robinson, The New York Times) Here is the dazzling saga of two women, the brilliant, bookish Elena and the fiery uncontainable Lila. In this book, life’s great discoveries have been made, its vagaries and losses have been suffered. Through it all, the women’s friendship, examined in its every detail over the course of four books, remains the gravitational center of their lives. Both women once fought to escape the neighborhood in which they grew up. Elena married, moved to Florence, started a family, and published several well-received books. But now, she has returned to Naples to be with the man she has always loved. Lila, on the other hand, never succeeded in freeing herself from Naples. She has become a successful entrepreneur, but her success draws her into closer proximity with the nepotism, chauvinism, and criminal violence that infect her neighborhood. Yet somehow this proximity to a world she has always rejected only brings her role as unacknowledged leader of that world into relief. Ferrante is one of the world’s great storytellers. With the Neapolitan quartet she has given her readers an abundant, generous, and masterfully plotted page-turner that is also a stylish work of literary fiction destined to delight readers for many generations to come.

Elena Ferrante is the bestselling author of The Days of Abandonment, which the New York Times described as “stunning,” Troubling Love, and The Lost Daughter. Her most recent novel, the first in a trilogy, is My Brilliant Friend . Frantumaglia is a collection of interviews and letters in which she discusses her controversial decision to remain out of the public eye, her thoughts on the art of writing, and the authors and books she admires. It is a free eGift from Europa Editions.

"High stakes, subversive literature."-The Telegraph[Bokinfo].

Continúa la saga «Dos amigas», la historia de la amistad de dos mujeres que recorre los años más importantes del siglo XX. UNA SAGA MEMORABLE «Ella me demostró que yo no había ganado nada, simplemente porque en este mundo nuestro no había nada que ganar... y lo que de verdad valía la pena era verse de vez en cuando para que el sonido enloquecido de nuestras mentes fuera rebotando de la una a la otra sin parar.» «Ella» es una mujer hermosa, alocada, y su nombre es Lila. Es la misma niña que conocimos en La amiga estupenda, el primer tomo de esta espléndida saga y ahora, recién cumplidos los dieciséis años, acaba de casarse con un hombre al que desprecia. La otra, que la escucha, la sigue y sin querer la imita, es Lenù, una alumna brillante, empeñada en aprender de los libros todo aquello que Lila aprende de la vida a secas. Así, en este rebote de sensaciones, se desarrolla una amistad muy peculiar, una relación donde la complicidad es ley. Basta una mirada de Lila para que Lenù entienda qué pasa realmente en el dormitorio de su amiga. Basta una sonrisa para descubrir qué se esconde tras esos vestidos caros que se acoplan al cuerpo de Lila como un guante y provocan a los hombres del barrio. Basta un gesto para que Lenù sepa que Lila va a cometer una locura y nadie será capaz de detenerla. Nápoles, la ciudad que las ha visto crecer, es el escenario de esta comedia que tiene la fuerza de un drama y se quedará entre nosotros como una de las obras maestras de la literatura del siglo XXI. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION Soon to be an HBO series, the follow-up to My Brilliant Friend in the New York Times bestselling Neapolitan quartet about two friends growing up in post-war Italy is a rich, intense, and generous-hearted family epic by Italy’s most beloved and acclaimed writer, Elena Ferrante, "one of the great novelists of our time." (Roxana Robinson, The New York Times). In The Story of a New Name, Lila has recently married and made her enterée into the family business; Elena, meanwhile, continues her studies and her exploration of the world beyond the neighborhood that she so often finds stifling. Love, jealousy, family, freedom, commitment, and above all friendship: these are signs under which both women live out this phase in their stories. Marriage appears to have imprisoned Lila, and the pressure to excel is at times too much for Elena. Yet the two young women share a complex and evolving bond that is central to their emotional lives and is a source of strength in the face of life''s challenges. In these Neapolitan Novels, Elena Ferrante, the acclaimed author of The Days of Abandonment, gives readers a poignant and universal story about friendship and belonging. Ferrante is one of the world’s great storytellers. With the Neapolitan quartet she has given her readers an abundant, generous, and masterfully plotted page-turner that is also a stylish work of literary fiction destined to delight readers for many generations to come.

The New York Times–bestseller set in a divided Naples—now a Netflix original series—from the acclaimed author of My Brilliant Friend and The Lost Daughter. A BEST BOOK OF 2020 The Washington Post·O, The Oprah Magazine·TIME Magazine·NPR·People Magazine·The New York Times Critics·The Guardian·Electric Literature·Financial Times·Times UK·Irish Times·New York Post·Kirkus Reviews·Toronto Star·The Globe and Mail·Harper’s Bazaar·Vogue UK·The Arts Desk Giovanna’s pretty face is changing, turning ugly, at least so her father thinks. Giovanna, he says, looks more like her Aunt Vittoria every day. But can it be true? Is she really changing? Is she turning into her Aunt Vittoria, a woman she hardly knows but whom her mother and father clearly despise? Surely there is a mirror somewhere in which she can see herself as she truly is. Giovanna is searching for her reflection in two kindred cities that fear and detest one another: Naples of the heights, which assumes a mask of refinement, and Naples of the depths, a place of excess and vulgarity. She moves from one to the other in search of the truth, but neither city seems to offer answers or escape. “Another spellbinding coming-of-age tale from a master.” —People Magazine, Top 10 Books of 2020 “The literary event of the year.” —Elle “Ms. Ferrante once again, with undiminished skill and audacity, creates an emotional force field that has at its heart a young girl on the brink of womanhood.” —The Wall Street Journal

"AN INCENDIARY PORTRAIT OF THE VOLCANIC CURRENTS OF SEX AND BETRAYAL."— Mail on Sunday THE INTERNATIONAL No. 1 BESTSELLER FROM THE AUTHOR OF MY BRILLIANT FRIEND A BBC2 Between The Covers Book Club Pick BRITISH BOOK AWARDS 2021 – SHORTLISTED FOR FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR Soon to be a NETFLIX original series 18M OF ELENA FERRANTE''S BOOKS SLOD WORLDWIDE Giovanna''s pretty face has changed: it''s turning into the face of an ugly, spiteful adolescent. But is she seeing things as they really are? Where must she look to find her true reflection and a life she can claim as her own? Giovanna''s search leads her to two kindred cities that fear and detest one another: the Naples of the heights, which assumes a mask of refinement, and the Naples of the depths, a place of excess and vulgarity. Adrift, she vacillates between these two cities, falling into one then climbing back to the other. Set in a divided Naples, The Lying Life of Adults is a singular portrayal of the transition from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER "This is no amiable coming-of-age tale... the most intense writing about the experiences and interior life of a girl on the cusp of adulthood that I have ever read. It is brilliant."— The Financial Times "An astonishing, deeply moving tale."— The Guardian "Ferrante confronts female sexual awakening with such an absence of romantic enchantment it leaves you gasping."— The Daily Mail WHAT READERS ARE SAYING: "Brilliant as always."—Jan on Amazon "A tightly crafted and gripping story."—Maxwell on Goodreads "Excellent book. My only complaint was that it ended too soon!"—Mhairi on Amazon "I woke up eagerly looking forward to reading more of this novel every single day."—Violet on Goodreads "Fans of Elena Ferrante will not be disappointed."—Lesley on Amazon

In one volume, the New York Times-bestselling epic about hardship and female friendship in postwar Naples that has sold over five million copies. Beginning with My Brilliant Friend, the four Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante follow Elena and Lila, from their rough-edged upbringing in Naples, Italy, not long after WWII, through the many stages of their lives--and along paths that diverge wildly. Sometimes they are separated by jealousy or hostility or physical distance, but the bond between them is unbreakable, for better or for worse. This volume includes all four novels: My Brilliant Friend; The Story of a New Name; Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay; and The Story of the Lost Child. "Imagine if Jane Austen got angry and you''ll have some idea of how explosive these works are." --The Australian "Nothing you read about Elena Ferrante''s work prepares you for the ferocity of it." --The New York Times "An enduring masterpiece." --The Atlantic

Lila menikah dan mulai melibatkan diri ke dalam bisnis keluarga. Sementara itu, Elena melanjutkan sekolahnya dan menjelajahi dunia di luar lingkungannya yang sering kali membuatnya gerah. Cinta, kecemburuan, keluarga, kebebasan, komitmen, dan persahabatan di atas semuanya itu—merupakan simbol-simbol fase yang dilalui kedua perempuan itu dalam kisah ini. Pernikahan rupanya telah memenjarakan Lila, dan tekanan untuk mendobraknya kadang kala terasa berlebihan bagi Elena. Namun, di antara kedua perempuan belia itu bertumbuh suatu ikatan yang semakin rumit, yang berpusat pada kehidupan emosional mereka dan menjadi sumber kekuatan dalam menghadapi tantangantantangan hidup.

Una joya de la literatura contemporánea que ya ha fascinado a más de medio millón de lectores en Italia y Estados Unidos. Primer libro de la saga ''Dos Amigas", que inspiró la serie de HBO. UNA SAGA MEMORABLE Con La amiga estupenda, Elena Ferrante inaugura una tetralogia deslumbrante que tiene como telón de fondo la ciudad de Nápoles a mediados del siglo pasado y como protagonistas a Lenù y Lila, dos jóvenes mujeres que están aprendiendo a gobernar su vida en un entorno donde la astucia, antes que la inteligencia, es el ingrediente de todas las salsas. La relación a menudo tempestuosa entre Lila y Lenù viene acompañada de un coro de voces que dan cuerpo a su historia y nos muestran la realidad de un barrio pobre, habitado por gente humilde que acata sin rechistar la ley del más fuerte, pero La amiga estupenda está lejos del realismo social: lo que aquí tenemos son unos personajes de carne y hueso, que nos intrigan y nos deslumbran por la fuerza y la urgencia de sus emociones. Por primera vez Ferrante aborda una narración muy amplia, poniendo en escena un verdadero tableau vivant donde no hay espacio para el tópico: todo es vida y todo respira al hilo de la mejor literatura. «El reto para quien escribe es llenar la distancia entre lo que vives y lo que cuentas, sentir físicamente el impacto de la narración...».-Elena Ferrante ENGLISH DESCRIPTION Book one in the New York Times bestselling Neapolitan quartet about two friends growing up in post-war Italy is a rich, intense, and generous-hearted family epic by Italy’s most beloved and acclaimed writer, Elena Ferrante, “one of the great novelists of our time.” (Roxana Robinson, The New York Times) Beginning in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Ferrante’s four-volume story spans almost sixty years, as its protagonists, 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 conflictual friendship. Book one in the series follows Lila and Elena from their first 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 her protagonists. “An intoxicatingly furious portrait of enmeshed friends,” writes Entertainment Weekly. “Spectacular,” says Maureen Corrigan on NPR’s Fresh Air. “A large, captivating, amiably peopled bildungsroman,” writes James Wood in The New Yorker Ferrante is one of the world’s great storytellers. With My Brilliant Friend she has given her readers an abundant, generous, and masterfully plotted page-turner that is also a stylish work of literary fiction destined to delight readers for many generations to come.