August Book of the month - My Brilliant Friend

**Book Club: My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
Join us as we delve into My Brilliant Friend, the first novel in Elena Ferrante’s acclaimed Neapolitan Novels series. Set in a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples in the 1950s, the book traces the intense, complicated friendship between two girls—Elena and Lila—over the course of their adolescence and into adulthood.
Through Ferrante’s raw and intimate prose, we witness a postwar Italian society in flux: caught between poverty and opportunity, tradition and modernity, violence and tenderness. As Elena and Lila navigate school, family expectations, and the shifting gender roles of their time, their bond becomes a mirror of ambition, jealousy, loyalty, and betrayal.
This is a powerful and emotionally rich read that will spark meaningful conversations about identity, class, female friendship, and the cost of personal transformation.
Discussion Points:

• How does Ferrante portray the complexities of female friendship—competition, admiration, dependence?
• In what ways does class and education shape the choices available to Elena and Lila?
• What role do violence and patriarchy play in the girls’ neighborhood and development?
• How does the Neapolitan setting function as a character in its own right?
• How does Ferrante’s decision to withhold her own identity influence how we read her work?