{"id":1324,"date":"2016-05-16T14:48:34","date_gmt":"2016-05-16T09:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fableandi.com\/?p=1324"},"modified":"2020-02-23T19:26:01","modified_gmt":"2020-02-23T13:56:01","slug":"book-review-brilliant-friend-elena-ferrante","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebooksatchel.com\/book-review-brilliant-friend-elena-ferrante\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante"},"content":{"rendered":"
My Brilliant Friend <\/em> by Elena Ferrante begins in the 1950s, in a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples. Here is where the vicious Lila and the demure Elena meet and become best friends even though they are so unlike each other. As they grow older, their paths repeatedly diverge and converge, and the relationship between the two also undergoes many changes. Through the lives of these two girls, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, where friends and enemies inhabit close quarters.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I was fascinated to read this work mainly because of the anonymity of the author- No one actually knows who Elena Ferrante is and where she resides. Also\u00a0the narrator of the book is a namesake of the author, which makes it even more appealing to read. A big thank you to dear friends Dhanya and Krishnendu for gifting this book.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n My Brilliant Friend\u2019 is the first in the series of Elena Ferrante\u2019s Neapolitan Novels. Translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein, it tells the story of the friendship and rivalry between Elena Greco and Raffaela \u201cLila\u201d Cerullo, over decades. The series opens with Elena, aged in her sixties, taking a telephone call from Lila\u2019s son who informs her that Lila has gone missing. The news does not surprise Elena in the slightest, on the other hand it makes her look back on her childhood and adolescence growing up with her lifelong friend during the late 1950s and 1960s.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n