To the eyes of a young adult, the stagnant, ancient make-up of the neighborhood is banal and suffocating, colored by violence and poverty. To the eyes of a child, these tightly woven relationships are sprawling and wondrous, with darkened secrets underlying the apparent yet unknown alliances that surround. The Cerullo’s are the shoemakers the Solara’s tend the café the Carracci’s run the grocery the Scanno’s sell fruits and vegetables, and so on, personal identities affixed through the symbiosis of small-town commerce, generations worth of friendship and rivalry. We leave Elena’s solitude for the dense social network of a 1950s neighborhood in Naples, Italy, where gossip jumps from balcony to balcony as women hang the laundry and each family is defined by the necessary trade they provide to the community. Not again during the series will anonymous screens interface between individuals. The next evening, Elena, 60 years old, sits down at her laptop to write the story of a friendship. The show opens on the blue glow of a vibrating phone in a darkened bedroom in the middle of the night. And like My Brilliant Friend’s Elena-who, in despair, awaits letters from her own best friend, Lila-I grew increasingly agitated that my friend’s silence confirmed my fear. I was her confidant, but I often worried that my disposition condemned me to need her more than she would ever need me. I tracked evidence that pointed to her reciprocated affection-the number of weekends spent together, the fond remarks, the articulated assurance that I was her best friend. Love her though I did, my best friend oftentimes baffled and vexed me, and I’m certain that she felt similarly about me. I suspect that I reread it later in the summer and, in a fit of embarrassment, threw it away. Yet she never wrote to me once over those three weeks, and so I never sent her that roving, tome-like epistle. In the meantime, I dutifully wrote to her each day, my first letter swelling into a lengthy diaristic account of my Francophile experiences. I had forgotten to make note of my best friend’s home address, but assumed the issue would be resolved when she sent her first letter to me. Only one leniency forestalled total cultural isolation: We were permitted to write and receive letters in English. While enrolled, we were contractually bound to speak and read only French, and we consumed exclusively French media. ![]() The summer before my senior year of high school, I spent three weeks at a French immersion sleepaway camp. In the Margins, a collection of original essays on reading and writing, was published by Europa in 2022. ![]() ![]() Ferrante’s most recent novel is the instant New York Times bestseller, The Lying Life of Adults (Europa, 2020). My Brilliant Friend, the HBO series directed by Saverio Costanzo, premiered in 2018 and is in its third season. The four volumes known as the “Neapolitan novels” ( My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, and The Story of the Lost Child) were published by Europa Editions in English between 20. She is also the author of Incidental Inventions (Europa, 2019), illustrated by Andrea Ucini Frantumaglia: A Writer’s Journey (Europa, 2016) and a children’s picture book illustrated by Mara Cerri, The Beach at Night (Europa, 2016). “Nothing quite like this has ever been published before.” -The Guardian “One of the best books of this or any other year.” -The Independent “Nothing you read about Elena Ferrante’s work prepares you for the ferocity of it." -Amy Rowland, The New York Times “My Brilliant Friend is a large, captivating, amiably peopled bildungsroman.” -James Wood, The New Yorker “Everyone should read anything with Ferrante’s name on it.” -The Boston Globe "The real world can drop away when you’re reading her.” -Entertainment Weekly “Some of the richest, loveliest prose I’ve read in many years.” -Seth Maxon, “Her prose is crystal, and her storytelling both visceral and compelling.” -The Economist " is one of the most talented writers working today.” -William O’Connor, The Daily Beast “Ferrante’s sentences have an incantatory power." -Pasha Malla, Slate Book Review "Utterly brilliant." -James Daunt, Waterstones "A satisfying and devastating culmination to a series that has grabbed readers’ hearts." -BuzzfeedĮlena Ferrante is the author of The Days of Abandonment (Europa, 2005), Troubling Love (Europa, 2006), and The Lost Daughter (Europa, 2008), now a film directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal and starring Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, and Jessie Buckley.
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