This story isn't on the International Mann booker short-list but one of its prequels - however I thought I had better start with the first one! It tells the story of intense friendship and rivalry between two girls growing up in the impoverished outskirts of Naples.
I really enjoyed the opening where suspense is created by the fact that the novel begins from the perspective of the story-teller as a sixty-something-year-old woman being told by her friend's son his mother has suddenly disappeared.
It feels vivid and authentic, more like an autobiography retold in the first person.
There are many characters -there are so many families in the neighbourhood, and everyone has nicknames that it was tough to remember who was who and who did what to which relative. (There is a cast of characters listed at the front of the book, but it's still confusing on a Kindle.)
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