siblings. The novel follows her from age six, when she enters school and meets Lila, until the age of 16. Raffaella Cerullo (known to all as Lina, and by Lenù as Lila), Lenù's best friend, whose disappearance ;eads her to write the novel. Lila is considered by most to be very intelligent, but she is not allowed to continue with a formal education after elementary school. She is also known as an unruly, wild child. The novel ends with her marriage, at the age of 16, to Stefano Carraci. Stefano Carracci, the son of Don Achille and Maria Carraci, brother to Pinuccia and Alfonso. Marries Lila at the end of the novel, when it is revealed that he had a deal with Marcello Solara, the man she believed she was escaping. Don Achille, father to Stefano, Pinuccia and Alfonso. A contrabandist feared by the whole neighborhood, that the young girls relate to an ogre. He is murdered when they are children. Pasquale and Carmela Peluso. Friends of Lila and Lenù. Pasquale becomes involved with the communist party. Melina, known to all as the crazy widow, having had a mental breakdown after being left by her lover Donato Sarratore. Mother to Antonio and Ada. Antonio Cappuccio, friend to Lenù and Lila. Dates Lenù during their teenage years. Giovanni "Nino" Sarratore, son of Donato Sarratore, leaves th eneighborhood when they are little. Lenù is secretly inffatuated by him. The Solara brothers, Marcello and Michele, sons of the local loan shark, insinuated to have Camorra connections. Maestra Oliviero, teaches Lila and Lenù in elementary school, and pressures the Greco family into sending Lenù to middle and later high school. Reception In 2019, The Guardian ranked My Brilliant Friend the 11th best book since 2000. The overall series was also listed in Vulture as one of the 12 "New Classics" since 2000. Adaptation In 2017, it was announced that HBO, RAI and TIMvision were adapting the series for a mini series. The show is named My Brilliant Friend, after the first novel (Italian: L'amica geniale) and adapts each book into an eight-episode season. The show is an Italian- and Neapolitan-language coming-of-age drama television series created by Saverio Costanzo, starring in the first season Elisa Del Genio (season 1, guest season 2) and Margherita Mazzucco (seasons 1–3) as Elena "Lenù" Greco, and Ludovica Nasti (season 1, guest season 2) and Gaia Girace (seasons 1–3) as