Book Club

Wednesday
A lovely Book Club this afternoon at Yvonne's home, the other side of Milly. There were five of us going and we all went in one car. Yvonne had kindly invited us for lunch, which we enjoyed outside. We started with some champagne and appetizers, celebrating Mary's birthday yesterday, then quiche and salad from Yvonne's garden, followed by cheese, and a delicious plum crumble supplied by Avril, the plums picked that morning from her garden! All very delicious! Good job I'd been for a long walk in the morning! Then to assuage my conscience still further, I joined Roger for a bike ride when he got home! The book we were discussing was Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend, which is the first book in her series the Neopolitan novels. Elena Ferrante is actually a pseudonym for an unknown Italian novelist - she has always refused to reveal her true identity. The story revolves around the friendship of Elena and Lila growing up in a poor, sometimes violent neighbourhood in the outskirts of Naples in the 1950's. Her writing is wonderfully descriptive, giving you such a vivid depiction of the neighbourhood and the various characters, of which there are many. Fortunately there is an index of characters provided at the beginning of the book which I had to refer back to on numerous occasions! An excellent read, which definitely leaves you longing to read the others, which I ordered when I got home!