The Story of a New Name | Elena Ferrante | 5 stars

[Idit]

My Brilliant Friend was a dazzling story of Elena and Lila’s childhood in a poor neighbourhood in Napoli. In The Story of a New Name we meet them again for their late teens.
Childhood or coming of age stories are wonderful so often. So I was a bit worried when I started the second book - will she succeed in creating the same magic?
She did! It is an amazing book. It’s complex and rich, and bring back my teens and early 20s. There so much universal in that story. The heartbreaks, they jealousy, the fun, the freedom.

from the book blurb: In The Story of a New Name, Lila has recently married and made her entrée into the family business; Elena, meanwhile, continues her studies and her exploration of the world beyond the neighborhood that she so often finds stifling. Love, jealousy, family, freedom, commitment, and above all friendship: these are signs under which both women live out this phase in their stories. Marriage appears to have imprisoned Lila, and the pressure to excel is at times too much for Elena. Yet the two young women share a complex and evolving bond that is central to their emotional lives and is a source of strength in the face of life’s challenges...

Heavy topics are tackled. Marriages, pregnancies, affairs, careers and hard labor, art, politics, nurture vs nature, what chance do kids born to poverty have to really and truly catch up to their richer cohorts
Everything is built so well, the characters, the stories, their feelings, all crafted in such an accurate way that just hit me in the gut.

[Joanne]

I just picked up My Brilliant Friend at a used book sale-glad to hear it called "dazzling"! On my "next 3 months" list

[Nicole R]

My Brilliant Friend is one of those books that has been on my shelf FOREVER and I never manage to get to it. I feel like I should prioritize it in 2020

[Tracy]

I really loved the audio for these- Hilary Huber is terrific. This is one of those series that sticks with you.