My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
6/16/20261 hr 33 min
Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Quartet sparked a global phenomenon, and in 2024, the New York Times named My Brilliant Friend—the first book in the series—the best book of the century so far. This week, Jeff and Rebecca dive into the book that ignited "Ferrante Fever" and the mysterious author readers praise for capturing girlhood and female friendship like no one else. Subscribe to our free newsletter, and become a member for access to early, ad-free listening and bonus content. Follow Zero to Well-Read on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Email us: zerotowellread@bookriot.com Thank you to ThriftBooks for being the presenting sponsor of this season of Zero to Well-Read! Zero to Well-Read is a proud member of the Airwave Podcast Network. This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Thanks to our sponsor, Quince! Go to Quince.com/wellread for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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First 90 secondsJeff O'Neill· Host0:00
This episode of Zero to Well Read is sponsored by ThriftBooks.com. And if you're looking for an edition of My Brilliant Friend to read, to gift, to encounter for the first time, to replace, go to ThriftBooks.com to find one. I'll be honest, I've never really loved the English edition that we get here in America of My Brilliant Friend. Wedding couple facing away, flower girls behind them. It's beautiful and it's evocative of a, a scene towards the end of the book, of course. But I found on ThriftBooks.com a cover I had never seen before of an English version by the Text Publishing Company. It's a mass market paperback, but this cover has two sort of school girls running along this cobblestone street excitedly, scaredly, joyously holding hands, and that to me really captures the core of the experience of reading My Brilliant Friend. That's the kind of thing you can find browsing around ThriftBooks.com and finding a special edition that maybe you don't know about. All kinds of things available there. Thanks to ThriftBooks.com for sponsoring this episode. Onto the show.
Speaker 21:02
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