A Friendship

Original title: Un’amicizia

Publication Date:

October 2020

Pages:

444

Original language and publisher

Italian | Rizzoli

Territories Handled

English (North America), Netherlands

Territories Sold

Slovakia (Inaque)
Film/TV rights (Palomar)
France (Liana Levi)
Sweden (Natur & Kultur)
Lithuania (Alma Littera)
Netherlands (De Bezige Bij)
Germany (Hoffmann und Campe Verlag)
Hungary (Park Kiadó)
North Macedonia (Ars Studio)
Russia (Sindbad)
Albania (Botime Dudaj)
China (Archipel Press)
Romania (Nemira Publishing House)
Greece (Aiolos)
Poland (Sonia Draga)
Turkey (Hep Kitap)
Arabic (Almutawassit)

Genre

Literary Fiction

Foreign Covers

 Cover
De Bezige Bij

A Friendship

Original title: Un’amicizia

Synopsis

“’A Friendship’ is the story of two girls who, together and apart, grow up and turn into women. An enthralling (absorbing, gripping) novel with strong and fascinating characters.” —Rosella Postorino

“Silvia Avallone allows us, with the strength of a great novelist, to see and touch the youth of the province of Elisa and Beatrice.
She takes the reader by the hand and she shows what the suffering for love is: mother’s love, and then the great, the absolute love: friendship, that friendship that leads to the discovery of the world and of oneself.” —Il Foglio

“Silvia Avallone’s new book is full of surprises, a wonderful story! It was exciting for me to find in its pages an author like Elsa Morante, in particular her ‘Menzogna e sortilegio’: I’m translating it into Dutch right now, and it’s fantastic to work on it at the same time as ‘A Friendship.'” —Manon Smits – translator for De Bezige Bij

“An extraordinary novel deeply-nested in complex and intriguing themes: fear of abandonment and loss; terror of feeling worthless and anxiety of accepting the challenges that life offers. Friendship is powerful in filling the voids that we carry inside, in overcoming the contradictions and fractures of existence.” —la Repubblica

Silvia Avallone’s stunning comeback as the queen of literary fiction in Italy

Elisa and Beatrice were friends, so long ago that it feels like another lifetime. They met when they were 14, in T. a small town on the Tuscany coast. Elisa ended up in T. by way of her mother’s incomprehensible choices, whereas Beatrice was T. born and raised. When they meet, two very different worlds collide: Elisa has a mismatched, troubled family that struggles to show affection; Beatrice has an attentive mother, a successful father, a perfect house.

Elisa is angry, rebellious and awkward; Beatrice is determined, rational and self secure. They have just one thing in common: loneliness. As an outsider, Elisa is never accepted; but Beatrice seems to have chosen her solitude, because she doesn’t think her peers in this little town are good enough for her. One day they decide to steal a pair of designer jeans from a shop: this initiation forms the basis of a strong, visceral, sisterly bond, the kind of friendship only 14 year old girls can have. They share all their firsts: first parties, first loves, losing their virginity, first pain, first grief.

Elisa and Beatrice are young, imperfect, rebellious and inseparable. But at one point something snaps.Thirteen years later, Beatrice is one of the most famous faces on the planet, she has millions of followers, incredible clothes, she’s living the dream. Meanwhile, Elisa was left to pick up the pieces, remembering, and searching for meaning. It’s her voice that accompanies us through the novel, in her new role as a mother.

Silvia Avallone creates unforgettable characters (Paolo, Elisa’s shy and self-conscious father; her brother, still an unresolved rebel at thirty; her mother, who has never been a mum in the traditional sense, but an example of a woman who knows how to be free – even if Elisa only comes to realize and accept this when she becomes a mother herself) and a supporting cast who make up a whole small town community.

This is a powerfully emotional, universal story that flirts gently with nostalgia and considers the deepest meaning of the word friendship. Friendship can be as powerful and dangerous as love, and this book explores women’s struggle to reconcile within themselves the spirit of Elisa, with her sensitivity, fears and fragility, and the spirit of Beatrice, with her desire to be beautiful and feminine, her fierce determination to succeed, and the great love every woman needs in order to love others: love for herself.

Marketing Information

  • First print run: 60,000 copies
  • 8 reprints since the release
  • On top-10 bestseller list in Italy for 18 weeks straight

Foreign Covers

 Cover
De Bezige Bij