I'm not sure why it took me so long to get around to reading this brilliant novel that a friend brought me months ago. It reminds of one of the reasons I love to read--total immersion in another life, another place. The place is Naples in the Fifties--a village-like street in the poor part of town. We follow the early lives of two ambitious girls in minute detail, at the same time absorbing the inter-family politics of their small world. I found it riveting. And lucky me!--there are three more books. The quartet is meant as a novel in installments.
And there's a television series (see picture above)--which I won't watch until I've read the other three books. I'm having to restrain myself from reading any summaries of their plots (this is a bit like a soap opera but with excellent writing, and I really want to know what happens but please don't tell me.) On reflection, I think I do know what put me off at first. At the beginning of the book is a daunting cast of characters and I probably read it and decided there was no way I could remember all those names and put the book back down.