Book 2 of the Neapolitan Quartet

From the author of My Brilliant Friend, The New York Times' #1 Best Book of the Century.

'The only book ever to make me shout out loud.' - The Guardian

Elena and Lila are now in their twenties. Elena continues her journey of self-discovery, while marriage appears to have imprisoned Lila. The two young women share a complex and evolving bond that brings them close at times, and drives them apart at others, each of them vacillating between hurtful disregard and profound love.

'Ferrante's Neapolitan novels don't merely offer a teeming visiong of working-class Naples, with its cobblers and professors, communists and mobbed-up businessmen, womanising poets and downtrodden wives; they present one of modern fiction's riches portraits of a friendship.' - John Powers, NPR

'Compelling, visceral and immediate.' - Los Angeles Times

'Startlingly honest and modern.' - The Economist