"This is a great show with a huge heart. Just be prepared for it to break yours every now and then." Rolling Stone

"As with The Handmaid's Tale, here is a TV adaptation that is truly sympathetic to its female characters and to the novel on which it is based. And which, in a very different way, is as gripping and ravishing, despite the ugliness and brutality it depicts." The Guardian

"Under the endless bright sunlight, My Brilliant Friend feels very dark, full of ominous foreshadowing, yet the two expressive young leads shine through as they subtly weigh up a turbulent universe and their place in it." The Times

"Ferrante's writing creates such vivid pictures in the mind of the reader that arriving at the set feels strangely like visiting an area inside your own imagination?" The Observer

"A unique, transfixing portrayal of female friendship over the course of 50 years." Harper's Bazaar

"My Brilliant Friend brings to life the vibrancy, poverty, grime and outright violence of Naples in the 1950s." The Independent

"A huge part of the books' appeal is the way they chart the changing role of women over the decades. This broader story of Italian life and culture is woven skilfully into a more intimate and complex consideration of the effects of a life-long tie to someone who is both sweetest friend and harshest rival." --The Financial Times

NOW A MAJOR TV SERIES, AND TIE-IN EDITION



Broadcast from 19 November on Sky Atlantic, and also available on NowTV, the HBO-RAI 8-part series is the first of four that will adapt Elena Ferrante's acclaimed Neapolitan quartet.

When the most important friend in her life disappears without trace, Elena Greco, an elderly woman living in a house crammed with books, switches on her PC and starts writing her own story, and that of Lila. She tells the tale of their friendship, which started at school in the 1950s. Set in a dangerous but fascinating Naples, it is just the start of a story spanning sixty years of life. A tale that attempts to unveil the mystery of Lila, Elena's brilliant, best friend, and her worst enemy.

The HBO-RAI Fiction and TIMVISION series is produced by Wildside and Fandango, in co-production with Umedia. All the episodes are directed by Saverio Costanzo (whose credits include the film Hungry Hearts). The story and screenplays are by Elena Ferrante, Francesco Piccolo, Laura Paolucci and Saverio Costanzo. Paolo Sorrentino and Jennifer Schuur are the executive producers.