My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
Described as a 'modern masterpiece' from one of Italy's most acclaimed authors, My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense and generous hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Ferrante's inimitable style lends itself perfectly to a meticulous portrait of these two women that is also the story of a nation and a touching meditation on the nature of friendship.
The story begins in the 1950s, in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples. Growing up on these tough streets the two girls learn to rely on each other ahead of anyone or anything else. As they grow, as their paths repeatedly diverge and converge, Elena and Lila remain best friends whose respective destinies are reflected and refracted in the other. They are likewise the embodiments of a nation undergoing momentous change. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighbourhood, a city and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her two protagonists, the unforgettable Elena and Lila. Ferrante is the author of three previous works of critically acclaimed fiction and with this novel, the first in a quartet, she proves herself to be one of Italy’s great storytellers. She has given her readers a masterfully plotted page-turner, abundant and generous in its narrative details and characterizations.
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins is one of those books where, suddenly, everyone was talking about it. Gone Girl a psychological mystery with similar themes.
The story is a first person narrative told from the point of view of three women: Rachel, Anna, and Megan. Rachel, a 32-year old alcoholic reeling from the dissolution of her marriage to Tom, who left her for another woman, Anna has lost her job. catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She’s even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. ‘Jess and Jason’, she calls them. Their life – as she sees it – is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy. And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she’s only watched from afar.
Now they’ll see; she’s much more than just the girl on the train…Rachel Watson is a 32-year-old alcoholic reeling from the dissolution of her marriage to Tom, who left her for another woman, Anna Watson. Rachel's drinking has caused her to lose her job. Concealing her unemployment from her flatmate, Rachel follows her old routine of taking the train to London every day; her train slowly passes her old house, which is now occupied by Tom, Anna, and Evie. She also begins watching from the train an attractive couple who live a few houses away from Tom, fantasizing about their perfect life together. Rachel has never met them and has no idea that their life is far from perfect, or that the woman, Megan Hipwell, helps Anna care for her child. Thus we have the basis for a convoluted plot. Megan goes missing and Rachel involves herself in the case. After the denouement which involves a stabbing, when the police arrive, former adversaries Rachel and Anna coordinate their stories to support their actions' having been in self-defence. In a very rapid turn-around this 2015 novel has premiered in 2016 as a film.
In Astonishing Splashes Of Colour, Kitty is a 32-year old woman, still grieving for the baby she lost. She also suffers from synaesthesia, a condition in which feelings are experienced as colours, so Kitty sees all her family members as different colours. As Kitty's obsession with children leads her to begin to unravel emotionally, she tries to reconstruct her own past. Her mother died when she was three, but when Kitty begins to question her father and siblings about it and other events of her past, the truth seems contradictory and elusive. As bits and pieces of her past come together, the mystery that became Kitty's life begins to take shape. She tries to construct the story of her life, to find out more about the other significant loss in her life - her mother, who died in a car crash when she was three - her four brothers and painter father seem unable or unwilling to help. What was her mother like and why did her older sister run away? Her brothers and father are evasive and tell widely various versions of the 'truth'. Central to her life is her feeling that she is overlooked, unimportant and 'missing' - from pictures, from her brother Adrian's thinly disguised 'novel' about his upbringing. In fundamental ways, her very existence seems to be denied. Something is wrong and Morrall reveals her mystery artfully and convincingly. Clare Morrall's novel was nominated for the 2003 Man Booker Prize and has received rave reviews. The Observer says of Astonishing Splashes Of Colour, "Morrall reveals her mystery artfully and convincingly, telling a story that is shocking, heart-stopping and completely absorbing."
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