My amazing friend

Verranti's portrayal in this quartet traces the life stages of two clever girls - Elina Grico, the kind, conscious girl, book lover, and her friend Laila, the rebellious and reckless girl - from childhood to adulthood, as they try to find two lives for themselves amidst the violent and degrading culture prevailing in the neighborhood where they live on the outskirts of Naples in Italy. The intertwined lives of the two girls present a vivid, indelible image of Naples, and an essential understanding of women's daily lives and their persistent efforts to circumvent men's claims, household work, and their artistic aspirations. The book, through a detailed exploration of the friendship that unites them, accurately depicts how they struggled to escape the neighborhood where they grew up, which was a prison of blind obedience, violence, and taboos that could not be violated at all.