News from Italy
“My Brilliant Friend” by Elena Ferrante
is the most beautiful book of the 21st century
Vita gazette – “My Brilliant Friend” by Elena Ferrante took first place in the “New York Times” ranking of the 100 best books of the 21st century. Elena Ferrante’s books “The Story of the Lost Child” and “The Days of Abandonment” were also in the top 100.
503 writers, critics and enthusiasts helped the New York Times editorial staff draw up the list of the best books published from January 1, 2000, to today. The selection went like this: a survey was sent to the people chosen to be part of the “jury” (among them: Stephen King, Bonnie Garmus, Claudia Rankine, James Patterson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Elin Hilderbrand, Thomas Chatterton Williams, Roxane Gay, Marlon James, Sarah MacLean, Min Jin Lee, Jonathan Lethem and Jenna Bush Hager), each of whom could point to ten books that deserved to be included in the list of the best of the 21st century. After that, it was up to the editorial staff to count the votes: the 100 books that received the most preferences entered the final ranking. Ranking at the top is My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante.
The first book of the saga is described as the beginning “of an expansion as explosive as that of the newborn universe, an expansion that holds within it ideas on art and politics, class and gender, philosophy and destiny.” In the short and enthusiastic description of the NYT, it is specified that there is no way of knowing how much of My Brilliant Friend’s story is inspired by Elena Ferrante’s real life, “but it is not an important question” we read.
In the top 100, Elena Ferrante, George Saunders, and Jesmyn Ward each have three books; Roberto Bolaño, Hilary Mantel, Alice Munro, Denis Johnson, Philip Roth, and Zadie Smith contributed two books each.
Here is The New York Times’ List of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century
100. Tree of Smoke – Denis Johnson
99. How to Be Both – Ali Smith
98. Bel Canto – Ann Patchett
97. Men We Reaped – Jesmyn Ward
96. Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments – Saidiya Hartman
95. Bring Up the Bodies – Hilary Mantel
94. On Beauty – Zadie Smith
93. Station Eleven – Emily St. John Mandel
92. The Days of Abandonment – Elena Ferrante
91. The Human Stain – Philip Roth
90. The Sympathizer – Viet Thanh Nguyen
89. The Return – Hisham Matar
88. The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis – Lydia Davis
87. Detransition, Baby – Torrey Peters
86. Frederick Douglass – David W. Blight
85. Pastoralia – George Saunders
84. The Emperor of All Maladies – Siddhartha Mukherjee
83. When We Cease to Understand the World – Benjamín Labatut
82. Hurricane Season – Fernanda Melchor
81. Pulphead – John Jeremiah Sullivan
80. The Story of the Lost Child – Elena Ferrante
79. A Manual for Cleaning Women – Lucia Berlin
78. Septology – Jon Fosse
77. An American Marriage – Tayari Jones
76. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow – Gabrielle Zevin
75. Exit West – Mohsin Hamid
74. Olive Kitteridge – Elizabeth Strout
73. The Passage of Power – Robert Caro
72. Secondhand Time – Svetlana Alexievich
71. The Copenhagen Trilogy – Tove Ditlevsen
70. All Aunt Hagar’s Children – Edward P. Jones
69. The New Jim Crow – Michelle Alexander
68. The Friend – Sigrid Nunez
67. Far From the Tree – Andrew Solomon
66. We the Animals – Justin Torres
65. The Plot Against America – Philip Roth
64. The Great Believers – Rebecca Makkai
63. Veronica – Mary Gaitskill
62. 10:04 – Ben Lerner
61. Demon Copperhead – Barbara Kingsolver
60. Heavy – Kiese Laymon
59. Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides
58. Stay True – Hua Hsu
57. Nickel and Dimed – Barbara Ehrenreich
56. The Flamethrowers – Rachel Kushner
55. The Looming Tower – Lawrence Wright
54. Tenth of December – George Saunders
53. Runaway – Alice Munro
52. Train Dreams – Denis Johnson
51. Life After Life – Kate Atkinson
50. Trust – Hernan Diaz49. Vejetaryen (The Vegetarian) – Han Kang
48. Persepolis) – Marjane Satrapi
47. A Mercy – Toni Morrison
46. The Goldfinch – Donna Tartt
45. The Argonauts – Maggie Nelson
44. The Fifth Season – N.K. Jemisin
43. Postwar – Tony Judt
42. A Brief History of Seven Killings – Marlon James
41. Small Things Like These – Claire Keegan
40. H Is for Hawk – Helen Macdonald
39. A Visit From the Goon Squad – Jennifer Egan
38. The Savage Detectives – Roberto Bolaño
37. The Years – Annie Ernaux
36. Between the World and Me – Ta-Nehisi Coates
35. Fun Home – Alison Bechdel
34. Citizen – Claudia Rankine
33. Salvage the Bones – Jesmyn Ward
32. The Line of Beauty – Alan Hollinghurst
31. White Teeth – Zadie Smith
30. Sing, Unburied, Sing – Jesmyn Ward
29. The Last Samurai – Helen DeWitt
28. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
27. Americanah – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
26. Atonement – Ian McEwan
25. Random Family – Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
24. The Overstory – Richard Powers
23. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage – Alice Munro
22. Behind the Beautiful Forevers – Katherine Boo
21. Evicted – Matthew Desmond
20. Erasure – Percival Everett
19. Say Nothing – Patrick Radden Keefe
18. Lincoln in the Bardo – George Saunders
17. The Sellout – Paul Beatty
16. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay – Michael Chabon
15. Paçinko (Pachinko) – Min Jin Lee
14. Outline – Rachel Cusk
13. The Road – Cormac McCarthy
12. The Year of Magical Thinking – Joan Didion
11. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – Junot Díaz
10. Gilead – Marilynne Robinson
9. Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro
8. Austerlitz – W.G. Sebald
7. The Underground Railroad – Colson Whitehead
6. 2666 – Roberto Bolaño
5. The Corrections – Jonathan Franzen
4. The Known World – Edward P. Jones
3. Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel
2. The Warmth of Other Suns – Isabel Wilkerson
1. My Brilliant Friend – Elena Ferrante