Author:Elena Ferrante,Anastasia Hille,Monica Dolan,Full Cast
From one of Italy's most acclaimed authors, The Neapolitan Novels is an exploration of the friendship between Lila and Lena, two bright young girls who grew up in the tough, rough streets of post-war Naples. This is no normal friendship; it's a friendship that loves, hurts, supports and destroys - and yet it is one that lasts a lifetime. These four full-cast BBC adaptations bring the streets of Naples vividly to life.
The first novel , My Brilliant Friend, begins in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighbourhood on the outskirts of Naples. Growing up on these streets two girls, Lena and Lila, learn to rely on each other ahead of anyone - or anything.
The Story of a New Name sees the two girls striving to make a better life for themselves. They work hard at school but Lila is stopped in her tracks when forced to give up her education to work for the family shoe-making business. It's not long before their worlds are pushed apart.
In the third book, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, Lena escapes to Milan but struggles to find the courage to live, parent and write again after her marriage to her increasingly dismissive husband. Lila, meanwhile, also struggles to rise above her social conditions and desperately tries to find a way to better herself in whatever way she can.
In the final part of their story, The Story of the Lost Child, Lena returns to Naples with her two children to find Lila has also managed to turn her life around, despite remaining in the claws of violent and mafia-run Naples.
Through broken marriages, violent pasts, and the yearning for something more, the two women always turn to each other as their friendship – and the tensions between them – grow ever deeper.
Adapted from the books by Elena Ferrante, translated by Ann Goldstein.
Dramatised by Timberlake Wertenbaker
Directed by Celia de Wolff
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
Mishima's novels exude a monstrous and compulsive weirdness, and seem to take place in a kind of purgatory for the depraved
—— Angela CarterMishima was one of literature's great romantics, a tragedian with a heroic sensibility, an intellectual, an esthete, a man steeped in Western letters who toward the end of his life became a militant Japanese nationalist
—— New York TimesMishima is the Japanese Hemingway
—— Life MagazineA writer of immense energy and ability
—— Time Outan engrossing read, seamlessly translated from Iturbe's original Spanish. Iturbe retains the dignity and full horror of Dita's situation, while creating a narrative of hope and bravery in the face of fear.
—— Compass MagazineReading The Librarian Of Auschwitz may make you feel sadness, anger, and disbelief (I had to stop reading at points), but overwhelmingly it’s about hope, courage, and the importance of the written word. This is a story for everyone who loves books.
—— People's FriendA profound tale about male friendship, its consolations and shortcomings, set in the Italian Alps
—— 100 Best Books to Read This Summer, The TimesWith gorgeously understated, unhurried prose, Cognetti crafts the story of an unlikely friendship between a city boy named Pietro and a young cow herder, Bruno, who lives in the Alpine mountains where the members of Pietro’s family spend their vacations. You can feel the cycles of nature as the narrative unfolds
—— New York TimesThe Eight Mountains is... Paolo Cognetti’s enchanting story of a boy who comes of age at altitude
—— Tobias Jones , GuardianA boy bonds with a local while holidaying in Italy’s mountains in a thoughtful...coming-of-age story... A story of relationships – not just between people, but with the mountains... Cognetti captures the elation and melancholy that comes with reaching a spectacular summit, only to realise the minuscule part we play in the panorama of life
—— Ben East , Observer
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