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Prologue: 1-3

• My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante, is a novel that takes place in 1950s Italy, in a small Naples neighborhood.

• The Prologue and Chapter 1 begin 60 years from the beginning of the story, when Elena and Lila are elderly women, and Lila's son, Rino, calls Elena to report that his mother is missing.

• Narration reveals that these women are long friends, that Elena lives in Turin, and that Lila has never left Naples.

• Elena advises Rino NOT to search for Lila, which is what she would prefer.

• In Chapter 2, Elena explains that 30 years before, Lila reported to Elena that she would like to walk out of her life and leave everything behind—to literally leave the world and vanish all traces of herself in the process.

• In Chapter 3, Elena searches through her belongings and finds nothing of Lila's, not a photo or memento to signify the years...

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