My Brilliant Friend: The Graphic Novel
Based on the novel by Elena Ferrante
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Elena Ferrante’s New York Times bestselling masterpiece, My Brilliant Friend, book one of her Neapolitan Quartet, is now an extraordinary, visually vibrant graphic novel, with text adapted by Chiara Lagani, and illustrations by Mara Cerri.
HBO’s four-season TV adaptation of My Brilliant Friend has enjoyed success with critics and viewers in the U.S.; the novel has been adapted for the stage and radio plays. Here, for the first time, it is brought to vivid life as a graphic novel by one of Italy’s most beloved illustrators.
For Ferrante fans, for those new to Ferrante, for readers of graphic novels, Chiara Lagani’s and Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend: the graphic novel is a thrilling new adaptation of one of the best loved novels of recent decades. Translated by Ferrante’s long-time translator, Ann Goldstein, the graphic novel tells the enduring story of the complex friendship between Lila and Lenù in post-war Naples.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Based on Ferrante's 2011 bestseller, this impressive graphic novel adaptation recalibrates the original story line of fraught friendship in post-WWII Italy with sensitive, buoyant drawings and economic yet powerful narration. Elena "Lenù" Greco and Raffaella "Lila" Cerullo grow up together in poverty and amid violence in 1950s Naples. Both girls show academic aptitude and ambition, especially Lila, who teaches herself to read and write. But only Lenù's parents allow her to continue in school. She feels torn with pity, shame, and jealousy, believing Lila is "always one step ahead." Meanwhile, Lila is pursued by nearly every man in town. The adaptation delicately, and sometimes more brazenly, captures the charge between the two, with a brilliant deep blue suddenly appearing or disappearing in emotionally charged sections. For instance, when Lila asks Lenù to swear they will "never leave each other," the story turns to pages of wordless images depicting explosive fireworks in various blue hues. The colorful and lucid sketches crackle on the page. This adaptation exquisitely captures Ferrante's story of a passionate and consuming friendship.
