"The Brilliant Friend" is the first novel from the Neapolitan Quartet series. This is a story about the childhood of two girls from a poor Neapolitan neighborhood and the beginning of a lifelong friendship. The girls' paths will diverge for the first time after elementary school. Family circumstances will force one of them to drop out of school and go to work in her father's shoe workshop. Throughout their lives, the invisible rivalry that accompanies true intimacy will lead them down different paths. Each of the friends will strive to become the best, each will know both success and disappointment, both will face great trials and tragic events. But the strong thread of childhood friendship, which sometimes binds people even Against their will, will force Lila and Elena to return to each other again and again.