My Brilliant Friend (Elena Ferrante, 2011)

A modern masterpiece from one of Italy’s most acclaimed authors, My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense and generous-hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Ferrante’s inimitable style lends itself perfectly to a meticulous portrait of these two women that is also the story of a nation and a touching meditation on the nature of friendship. Through the intense friendship and rivalry between two girls growing up in the impoverished outskirts of Naples, Ferrante tells the story of a neighbourhood, a city and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between the two girls. The book is about class as much as gender. That constant anger, violence, the “let’s get them before they get us” feel permeates the novel.

No one (except her publisher) actually knows who Elena Ferrante is, but her approach appears to be that all that the author wants to say is already in the book and there is no need for the entire marketing circus. Her books defiantly ignore all creative writing advice and cheerfully tell and not show, abandon all sensible plot structure and introduce as many characters as she feels like, not really caring whether that whole cast is in any way necessary. Neither do they have time for stylistic flourishes. Ferrante’s prose is bare; the language takes a back seat and is nothing more than a tool to the narrative that is pushed forward by its own urgency. What we are left with, though, is so vivid and authentic that no carefully polished novel could compete with it. It still manages to steal the hearts of thousands, both women and men.