Sonja
Great beginning to the Neapolitan Quartet, it perfectly portrays a common female friendship dynamic by following two best friends Elena and Lila throughout their childhood and teenage years. Featuring an unreliable (and naive in nature) narrator in Elena, the reader is often left wondering which of the girls is actually a better friend to the other. The book tells the story of this friendship against the backdrop of a poor neighbourhood in Naples that is on the surface slowly changing with the times, yet in its core remains the same corrupt, violent and tough district. As such, the reader can immerse itself in a historical Italian setting while empathising with the neighbourhood children's tough upbringing and seeing the power (or rather, survival) struggle unravel both between the young and old generations.
Great beginning to the Neapolitan Quartet, it perfectly portrays a common female friendship dynamic by following two best friends Elena and Lila throughout their childhood and teenage years. Featuring an unreliable (and naive in nature) narrator in Elena, the reader is often left wondering which of the girls is actually a better friend to the other. The book tells the story of this friendship against the backdrop of a poor neighbourhood in Naples that is on the surface slowly changing with the times, yet in its core remains the same corrupt, violent and tough district. As such, the reader can immerse itself in a historical Italian setting while empathising with the neighbourhood children's tough upbringing and seeing the power (or rather, survival) struggle unravel both between the young and old generations.