My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my free digital ARC!

It feels cliché to compare an Italian woman writer’s book about two young girls forming a fierce friendship to Elena Ferrante but… I’m gonna do it anyway. Because I genuinely think that if you were a fan of the Neapolitan Novels, you’ll also really enjoy The Cursed Friend. It’s set earlier than Ferrante’s quartet, in 1930s Italy against the backdrop of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. Books with a colonial slant often focus on bigger empires like the British and French, so I do appreciate the reminder of the atrocities smaller nations inflicted in the name of so-called empire. It’s also a scary reminder of how easily ‘normal’ people can bend to fascism.

But Maddalena and Francesca’s friendship is the true focus of this book, and Salvioni does an excellent job of depicting that obsessive, all-consuming bond formed between younger teenage girls. There’s a unique twist in that Maddalena is somewhat of an outcast in their town, spoken of by other children and adults alike as ‘the cursed one’. Francesca risks her own social status to be close to her.

Salvioni also tackles sexual violence among young girls in 1930s Italy, with several characters falling victim to male predators. It goes to some dark places, and the double standards and unjust treatment of women twill have you raging. Recommended if you like your female characters full of howling rage at the world.

Translated from the Italian by Elena Pala.