A Review of My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

What it’s about

Through our narrator, Elena (nicknamed Lenu), we get to know her and her frenemy Raffaela (nicknamed Lila and Lina). We watch as both girls grow up in 1950s Naples. In a poor rough neighborhood, scandals, murders, and violent depression are common. Throughout the four-book-series, we will follow their lives up until their middle age. It’s a bildungsroman (coming of age story) in every sense.