---
product_id: 48178139
title: "The Story of a New Name: My Brilliant Friend Book 2: Youth (Neapolitan Quartet, 2)"
price: "€ 34.82"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.hr/products/48178139-the-story-of-a-new-name-my-brilliant-friend-book
store_origin: HR
region: Croatia
---

# Set in 1950s-60s Naples, rich cultural backdrop Paperback format, easy to carry 4.2⭐ from 16,711 reviews, highly engaging read The Story of a New Name: My Brilliant Friend Book 2: Youth (Neapolitan Quartet, 2)

**Price:** € 34.82
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Summary

> 📖 Unlock the power of friendship and fierce ambition in post-war Naples!

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** The Story of a New Name: My Brilliant Friend Book 2: Youth (Neapolitan Quartet, 2)
- **How much does it cost?** € 34.82 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.hr](https://www.desertcart.hr/products/48178139-the-story-of-a-new-name-my-brilliant-friend-book)

## Best For

- Customers looking for quality international products

## Why This Product

- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Key Features

- • **Complex Female Bonds:** Explore the raw, evolving friendship of Elena and Lila, a narrative that resonates with millennial women balancing ambition and tradition.
- • **Timeless Italian Drama:** Dive into the vivid world of post-war Naples and experience a friendship that defines generations.
- • **Portable Literary Escape:** Lightweight paperback design lets you carry this captivating story anywhere—perfect for your daily commute or coffee breaks.
- • **Cultural & Emotional Depth:** Ferrante’s storytelling offers a nuanced portrait of love, jealousy, and societal pressures—making it a must-read for those craving meaningful narratives.
- • **Critically Acclaimed Series:** Join over 16,000 readers who rated this sequel 4.2 stars, cementing its place in modern literary fiction.

## Overview

The Story of a New Name is the second book in Elena Ferrante’s acclaimed Neapolitan Quartet, presented in a portable paperback format. Set against the vivid backdrop of 1950s-60s Naples, it explores the complex friendship between two young women navigating love, family, and societal expectations. With over 16,700 reviews averaging 4.2 stars, this literary fiction bestseller offers a deeply emotional and culturally rich reading experience that resonates with modern readers seeking stories of resilience and identity.

## Description

In 2012, Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend introduced readers to the unforgettable Elena and Lila, whose lifelong friendship provides the backbone for the Neapolitan Novels. The Story of a New Name is the second book in this series. With these books, which the New Yorker ’s James Wood described as “large, captivating, amiably peopled...a beautiful and delicate tale of confluence and reversal,” Ferrante proves herself to be one of Italy’s most accomplished storytellers. She writes vividly about a specific neighborhood of Naples from the late-1950s through to the current day and about two remarkable young women who are very much the products of that place and time. Yet in doing so she has created a world in which readers will recognize themselves and has drawn a marvelously nuanced portrait of friendship. In The Story of a New Name , Lila has recently married and made her entrée into the family business; Elena, meanwhile, continues her studies and her exploration of the world beyond the neighborhood that she so often finds stifling. Love, jealousy, family, freedom, commitment, and above all friendship: these are signs under which both women live out this phase in their stories. Marriage appears to have imprisoned Lila, and the pressure to excel is at times too much for Elena. Yet the two young women share a complex and evolving bond that is central to their emotional lives and is a source of strength in the face of life’s challenges. In these Neapolitan Novels, Elena Ferrante, the acclaimed author of The Days of Abandonment , gives readers a poignant and universal story about friendship and belonging.

Review: Love, passion and violence, a potent mix. Written from the heart. - `How difficult it was to find one's way, how difficult it was not to violate any of the incredibly detailed male regulations.' The change from child to teenager brings a whole new set of problems for Lenu and Lila, friends who live in the backstreets of a tough neighbourhood in Naples. I first encountered and loved them as children in `My Brilliant Friend' the first book in Elena Ferrante's series set in 1950s and 1960s Italy. Lenu and Lila face a full on struggle, a raw, often literal, fight to find love. Everyone wants this dream relationship, but so often pain and violence intervene. The author, Elena Ferrante has hidden herself, refusing all publicity. `She' could even be a man. She/he may never have lived in Naples. For example, I find it strange that the rituals of the Catholic church are absent from the book. However, this is irrelevant. `Story of a New Name' has universal meaning. Whether in an impoverished area of Naples or in a middle class environment in England the same passions rage, the same battle continues between the boys and the girls. I identified strongly with parts of this story. When I was a teenage girl (also in the 1960s) I learnt how following your heart can lead to poverty and the violence of a teenage boy. Accurately described here, a raw impassioned experience. Also like myself as a teenager, Lenu and Lila have no available wise adults to help and guide them. Lenu, the narrator, comes up with the reason why she and Lila accept the violence. `Of course the explanation was simple: we had seen our fathers beat our mothers from childhood. We had grown up thinking that a stranger must not even touch us, but that our father, our boyfriend, and our husband could hit us when they liked, out of love, to educate us, to re-educate us.' The women are repressed by the men, who are repressed by the social conditions under which they live. Whoever Elena Ferrante is, she/he is an artist of the emotions and this is a wild, passionate book. I loved it.
Review: Splendid books ruined by inept translation - The book is excellent, gripping, makes you share the characters' times, mentality, limitations, misfortunes, preconceptions, hopeless fatalism, while the plot relentlessly develops. I would give 5 stars to the book and 2 or less to the translation that I find almost offensive. Translating is extremely difficult and probably underpaid, complete familiarity with the Neapolitan dialect (actually a language) is also required in this case; however, there must be some attention and dedication to what the text means, mangled style apart... The structure of Italian painfully emerges throughout, but, worse, many words are always mistranslated, leading to misrepresentation. Examples: "distratto" is not "distracted", "actually" is not "attualmente", and I could go on and on.

## Features

- Paperback

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | 119,952 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) 526 in Women's Literary Fiction (Books) 1,927 in Literary Fiction (Books) 2,571 in Historical Fiction (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.2 out of 5 stars 16,711 Reviews |

## Images

![The Story of a New Name: My Brilliant Friend Book 2: Youth (Neapolitan Quartet, 2) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/819hz4I82RL.jpg)

## Available Options

This product comes in different **Media Format** options.

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Love, passion and violence, a potent mix. Written from the heart.
*by M***Y on 11 January 2015*

`How difficult it was to find one's way, how difficult it was not to violate any of the incredibly detailed male regulations.' The change from child to teenager brings a whole new set of problems for Lenu and Lila, friends who live in the backstreets of a tough neighbourhood in Naples. I first encountered and loved them as children in `My Brilliant Friend' the first book in Elena Ferrante's series set in 1950s and 1960s Italy. Lenu and Lila face a full on struggle, a raw, often literal, fight to find love. Everyone wants this dream relationship, but so often pain and violence intervene. The author, Elena Ferrante has hidden herself, refusing all publicity. `She' could even be a man. She/he may never have lived in Naples. For example, I find it strange that the rituals of the Catholic church are absent from the book. However, this is irrelevant. `Story of a New Name' has universal meaning. Whether in an impoverished area of Naples or in a middle class environment in England the same passions rage, the same battle continues between the boys and the girls. I identified strongly with parts of this story. When I was a teenage girl (also in the 1960s) I learnt how following your heart can lead to poverty and the violence of a teenage boy. Accurately described here, a raw impassioned experience. Also like myself as a teenager, Lenu and Lila have no available wise adults to help and guide them. Lenu, the narrator, comes up with the reason why she and Lila accept the violence. `Of course the explanation was simple: we had seen our fathers beat our mothers from childhood. We had grown up thinking that a stranger must not even touch us, but that our father, our boyfriend, and our husband could hit us when they liked, out of love, to educate us, to re-educate us.' The women are repressed by the men, who are repressed by the social conditions under which they live. Whoever Elena Ferrante is, she/he is an artist of the emotions and this is a wild, passionate book. I loved it.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Splendid books ruined by inept translation
*by D***G on 31 December 2014*

The book is excellent, gripping, makes you share the characters' times, mentality, limitations, misfortunes, preconceptions, hopeless fatalism, while the plot relentlessly develops. I would give 5 stars to the book and 2 or less to the translation that I find almost offensive. Translating is extremely difficult and probably underpaid, complete familiarity with the Neapolitan dialect (actually a language) is also required in this case; however, there must be some attention and dedication to what the text means, mangled style apart... The structure of Italian painfully emerges throughout, but, worse, many words are always mistranslated, leading to misrepresentation. Examples: "distratto" is not "distracted", "actually" is not "attualmente", and I could go on and on.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ An absorbing book
*by I***S on 6 January 2017*

I read the first of this trilogy last year and loved it. I wondered if Elena Ferrante could maintain the intensity into the second book. She does, and with such a light touch. The relationships that form the core of the book are subtle and engrossing, revealing so much about the way we relate to others. The only aspect I found off-putting was the continual reference to dialect and Italian language. Is this a consequence of the translation? If read in the original would the relevance be obvious to the reader? This is a small criticism, arising from my lack of understanding. I give 5 star ratings very rarely but this trilogy is up there with the best. I cant wait to read the third book. In fact, I just downloaded it.

## Frequently Bought Together

- The Story of a New Name: A Novel (Neapolitan Novels, 2)
- Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay: A Novel (Neapolitan Novels, 3)
- The Story of the Lost Child: A Novel (Neapolitan Novels, 4)

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*Product available on Desertcart Croatia*
*Store origin: HR*
*Last updated: 2026-08-13*