"Giovanna's pretty face is changing, turning ugly, at least so her father thinks. Giovanna, he says, looks more like her Aunt Vittoria every day. But can it be true? Is she really changing? Is she turning into her Aunt Vittoria, a woman she hardly knows but whom her mother and father clearly despise? Surely there is a mirror somewhere in which she can see herself as she truly is. Giovanna is searching for her reflection in two kindred cities that...

"Lzhivaia vzroslaia zhizn' - eto zakhvatyvaiushchiĭ, psikhologicheski tonkiĭ i tochnyĭ roman o tom, kak nelegko vzroslet'. ́Glavnoĭ geroine, ona zhe rasskazchitsa, na samom poroge iunosti prikhoditsia uznat' mnozhestvo semeĭnykh taĭn, spravitsia s gruzom kotorykh bylo by trudno liubomu vzroslomu. Predatel'stvo blizkikh, nenavist' i zlobnye peresudy, perekhodiashchaia iz ruk v ruki dragotsennost', odnovremenno ob"ediniajushchaia i seiushchaia...

The story begins in the 1950s, in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples. Growing up on these tough streets the two girls learn to rely on each other ahead of anyone or anything else. As they grow, as their paths repeatedly diverge and converge, Elena and Lila remain best friends whose respective destinies are reflected and refracted in the other. They are likewise the embodiments of a nation undergoing momentous change. Through...