William Finnegan is a staff writer at
The New Yorker.
His latest book is
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life.
One of
the author's ten favorite books, as shared at Vulture.com:
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
The first volume in the Neapolitan quartet, this one changes in the mind’s eye if you’re pulled, as I am, helplessly through the subsequent books, with its primal 
scenes from early childhood deepening throughout. Is there a better portrait of friendship in literature than the story of Elena Greco, the narrator, and her brilliant friend, Lila Cerullo? Elena escapes the old neighborhood, and the poverty of postwar Naples, through education, but Lila remains the incandescent figure. The tormented power of their relationship never flags, through “The Story of a New Name,” “Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay,” and the devastating “The Story of a Lost Child.” I hear the TV series is good. The books are a universe.
Read about
another entry on the list.
--Marshal Zeringue
William Finnegan is a staff writer at The New Yorker.
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