La amiga estupenda / My Brilliant Friend (Dos Amigas / Neapolitan Novels) (Spanish Edition)
Uno de los mejores libros del Siglo XXI según el New York Times
Una joya de la literatura contemporánea que ya ha fascinado a más de medio millón de lectores en Italia y Estados Unidos.
Primer libro de la saga 'Dos Amigas", que inspiró la serie de HBO.
UNA SAGA MEMORABLE
Con La amiga estupenda, Elena Ferrante inaugura una tetralogia deslumbrante que tiene como telón de fondo la ciudad de Nápoles a mediados del siglo pasado y como protagonistas a Lenù y Lila, dos jóvenes mujeres que están aprendiendo a gobernar su vida en un entorno donde la astucia, antes que la inteligencia, es el ingrediente de todas las salsas.
La relación a menudo tempestuosa entre Lila y Lenù viene acompañada de un coro de voces que dan cuerpo a su historia y nos muestran la realidad de un barrio pobre, habitado por gente humilde que acata sin rechistar la ley del más fuerte, pero La amiga estupenda está lejos del realismo social: lo que aquí tenemos son unos personajes de carne y hueso, que nos intrigan y nos deslumbran por la fuerza y la urgencia de sus emociones.
Por primera vez Ferrante aborda una narración muy amplia, poniendo en escena un verdadero tableau vivant donde no hay espacio para el tópico: todo es vida y todo respira al hilo de la mejor literatura.
«El reto para quien escribe es llenar la distancia entre lo que vives y lo que cuentas, sentir físicamente el impacto de la narración...».-Elena Ferrante
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century
Book one in the New York Times bestselling Neapolitan quartet about two friends growing up in post-war Italy is a rich, intense, and generous-hearted family epic by Italy’s most beloved and acclaimed writer, Elena Ferrante, “one of the great novelists of our time.” (Roxana Robinson, The New York Times)
Beginning in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Ferrante’s four-volume story spans almost sixty years, as its protagonists, the fiery and unforgettable Lila, and the bookish narrator, Elena, become women, wives, mothers, and leaders, all the while maintaining a complex and at times conflictual friendship. Book one in the series follows Lila and Elena from their first fateful meeting as ten-year-olds through their school years and adolescence.
Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her protagonists.
“An intoxicatingly furious portrait of enmeshed friends,” writes Entertainment Weekly. “Spectacular,” says Maureen Corrigan on NPR’s Fresh Air. “A large, captivating, amiably peopled bildungsroman,” writes James Wood in The New Yorker
Ferrante is one of the world’s great storytellers. With My Brilliant Friend she has given her readers an abundant, generous, and masterfully plotted page-turner that is also a stylish work of literary fiction destined to delight readers for many generations to come.
Una joya de la literatura contemporánea que ya ha fascinado a más de medio millón de lectores en Italia y Estados Unidos.
Primer libro de la saga 'Dos Amigas", que inspiró la serie de HBO.
UNA SAGA MEMORABLE
Con La amiga estupenda, Elena Ferrante inaugura una tetralogia deslumbrante que tiene como telón de fondo la ciudad de Nápoles a mediados del siglo pasado y como protagonistas a Lenù y Lila, dos jóvenes mujeres que están aprendiendo a gobernar su vida en un entorno donde la astucia, antes que la inteligencia, es el ingrediente de todas las salsas.
La relación a menudo tempestuosa entre Lila y Lenù viene acompañada de un coro de voces que dan cuerpo a su historia y nos muestran la realidad de un barrio pobre, habitado por gente humilde que acata sin rechistar la ley del más fuerte, pero La amiga estupenda está lejos del realismo social: lo que aquí tenemos son unos personajes de carne y hueso, que nos intrigan y nos deslumbran por la fuerza y la urgencia de sus emociones.
Por primera vez Ferrante aborda una narración muy amplia, poniendo en escena un verdadero tableau vivant donde no hay espacio para el tópico: todo es vida y todo respira al hilo de la mejor literatura.
«El reto para quien escribe es llenar la distancia entre lo que vives y lo que cuentas, sentir físicamente el impacto de la narración...».-Elena Ferrante
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century
Book one in the New York Times bestselling Neapolitan quartet about two friends growing up in post-war Italy is a rich, intense, and generous-hearted family epic by Italy’s most beloved and acclaimed writer, Elena Ferrante, “one of the great novelists of our time.” (Roxana Robinson, The New York Times)
Beginning in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Ferrante’s four-volume story spans almost sixty years, as its protagonists, the fiery and unforgettable Lila, and the bookish narrator, Elena, become women, wives, mothers, and leaders, all the while maintaining a complex and at times conflictual friendship. Book one in the series follows Lila and Elena from their first fateful meeting as ten-year-olds through their school years and adolescence.
Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her protagonists.
“An intoxicatingly furious portrait of enmeshed friends,” writes Entertainment Weekly. “Spectacular,” says Maureen Corrigan on NPR’s Fresh Air. “A large, captivating, amiably peopled bildungsroman,” writes James Wood in The New Yorker
Ferrante is one of the world’s great storytellers. With My Brilliant Friend she has given her readers an abundant, generous, and masterfully plotted page-turner that is also a stylish work of literary fiction destined to delight readers for many generations to come.
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Community Reviews
Named best book of the 21st century by the New York Times. The Neapolitan Series, a quartet of novels ushers readers into the world of a literary friendship so specific, yet relatable, that it feels like you’re another one of the BFFs. Meet Elena and Raffaella, two young women who grow up on the outskirts of Naples in poverty, struggling against the sometimes smothering social expectations of their community.
It got much better for me in the second half of the book, but I didn't love it as much as everyone else. But I have all the books so I'll continue the series!
When the NYTimes came out this year with its list of the 100 best books of the century so far, I was shocked that Elena Ferrante’s “My Brilliant Friend” was number one. I’d never read anything by Ferrante and, for some reason, felt indignation. How could THAT book take first place? Better than some of my favorites like “A Gentleman in Moscow”and “Hamnet” which hadn’t even made the list! I didn’t want to read it, much less like it. But when the NYTimes Book Review podcast chose it for its book club title, I felt compelled to find out what the praise was all about. And, guess what? I loved it. Maybe not as much as the books I mention above, but I cannot wait to read the next in the Neapolitan Quartet and find out what’s next for Lina and her brilliant friend Elena.
Although the numerous, similar Italian names meant it took me half the book to get my head around which character was which, I reallllllly enjoyed this. I felt like I was in a secret village in Naples with deep thoughts and feelings about gender roles, literature, friendship, and society.
Onto the next!
This book just didn't grab me. I felt like it took forever to explain various aspects of the characters. I doubt that I will read any more of the series.
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