Lila and Elena are sixteen years old, both trapped in a dead end. Newlywed Lila, just acquiring her husband's surname, feels like she is losing herself. Elena, now a model student, discovers with her friend's marriage that she is suffocating in her neighborhood, in the world she was destined to live in.

The second book of the "Neapolitan Novels," starting from this point, sweeps the reader into the captivating youth of the two girls, observing the transformation of themselves and their surroundings. The backdrop is Naples and an entire country where the unsettling traits of the modern era are incubating. The two friends drift apart, reunite, and through the sweeping rhythm of their relationship, complete the puzzle of their lives, each with her own pieces.

Elena Ferrante continues the gripping narrative anatomy of the lives of the two girls that began with "My Brilliant Friend." On their path to maturity, two women so alike, so different, so among us...