Recommendations from our site
“It’s the story of a friendship between these two girls, Elena and Lila, growing up in Naples. One of them, Elena, is a dogged student. She’s going to do well. She’s working class, but she’s going to go to university. Lila is more of a prodigy, more naturally bright, but her parents don’t want to pay for her further education, so she ends up dropping out and marrying at 16…Elena Ferrante must have lived through 1950s Naples to be able to evoke it in this way. It’s just incredible…There’s just something about it that draws you in, it’s almost mesmerizing. You keep reading because it’s so easy to read, so smooth, and yet…once you’re in, it feels jagged. There is this seduction, and yet there’s also a lot of darkness in it, a lot of poverty and violence…It’s quite a read. I think it’s probably not for everybody, but it certainly was for me.” Read more...
Historical Novels Set in Italy
Tracy Chevalier, Historical Novelist
