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. 

Through the lives of these two women, Elena Ferrante narrates 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.

With My Brilliant Friend, Elena Ferrante created an abundant, generous, and masterfully plotted page-turner. It's a “large, captivating, amiably peopled bildungsroman,” as James Wood puts it in The New Yorker.