We’re beyond thrilled to announce the publication of My Brilliant Friend: The Graphic Novel (out October 10).
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.
Lagani and Cerri give new life to Lila and Lenù, shedding light from new angles on Ferrante’s most iconic work. The story begins in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples in the 1950s, with two girls holding hands to find the courage to face the terrifying Don Achille. A gesture that will mark both their lives.
Chiara Lagani has done a remarkable job of condensing the 360-page book to its very essence, leaving no gesture nor nuance out. Mara Cerri’s illustrations, inspired not only by Ferrante’s story, but also Saverio Costanzo’s set for the HBO series, are dark and gritty full of carnality, violence, and mystery of Ferrante’s original story.
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.
“Ferrante has captured the intensity of childhood friendships—their all-consuming nature, the passions and the near romantic obsession—brilliantly.”—The Guardian
