"My Brilliant Friend" by Elena Ferrante ****

• Audiobook 
• Originally published in 2012
• Italian author
• Volume One in a four volume set
• Review:  I wasn't sure at first if this was going to turn into a sappy, girly friendship, happy ending story.  Nope!  I kept feeling drawn onward and ended up being impressed.  It is a relationship story between two girls starting in childhood, yet it is much more.  It is the story of two smart girls caught in their local culture which strives valiantly to keep them from leaving socially and intellectually.   Such an emotional, subtle battle! It is the story of the superficial versus the profound, of emerging whole versus being subsumed,  and of the painfully confusing process of sorting it all out. How does one allow the life of the mind to fly freely while simultaneously finding a way to remain among one's cultural home and stay sane.  I wholeheartedly look forward to the second of this four volume set.