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, the unforgettable Elena and Lila. They are likewise the embodiments of a nation undergoing momentous change. As they grow, as their paths repeatedly diverge and converge, Elena and Lila remain best friends whose respective destinies are reflected and refracted in the other. Growing up on these tough streets the two girls learn to rely on each other ahead of anyone or anything else. The story begins in the 1950s, in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples. No one understood us, only we two-I thought-understood one another. by Catherine Dunne This thrilling novel from bestselling Irish novelist Catherine Dunne is like if you took the Neapolitan Quartet, condensed it into one novel, and separated the lives of the two leading women (who nonetheless influence one another’s lives, without even realizing it). We were twelve years old, but we walked along the hot streets of the neighborhood, amid the dust and flies that the occasional old trucks stirred up as they passed, like two old ladies taking the measure of lives of disappointment, clinging tightly to each other.
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