This year I surprisingly learned that I like to sweat at the gym, but something else, even more unexpected, came to the surface. It was surprising to discover this passion for serial novels. I’m reading the last book of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan series. I am entirely immersed in the story of Lila and Lenu. The latest series I read was Harry Potter in pre-teens.

One of the worst feelings for readers is the emptiness left at the end of a book. As if the last page is the farewell to distant relatives who spent a season with you, including you in adventures, sharing sorrows and joys. The time to pack their bags arrived, and they left you in the hangover of the empty and silent house. Elena Ferrante reminded me that a series prolongs visitors’ stay and relieves the stress of looking for the next read.

Elena came into my life as a gift, literally and figuratively. In February, I got a gift card from Barnes & Nobles. Because it was a present, I decided to look for a non-obvious title. I wanted to surprise myself as if the person had chosen the book based on what she knew about me. It was exciting to select a present through another person’s eyes.

I learned from Elena Ferrante’s books that being a foreigner is more than moving to another country

I already knew Elena’s name. In April, I read for six days (a personal record) “The Lying Life of Adults.” It was the first time I crossed paths with Elena Ferrante. Soon after, I started the Neapolitan novels.

For me, preferences (literary, cinematographic, culinary…) are phases. I was in a monogamous relationship with autobiographies, essays, and non-fiction books before being absorbed by Elena Ferrante’s Naples. I love the sharp, sensitive, and genuine writing of the author’s novels. I want to make reflections on the history that can resonate with anyone, but here’s a warning: I’m giving some spoilers to make my point.

The series tells the story of two friends, Lila and Lenu, who lived in the same neighborhood and attended the same elementary school. Lenu leaves the area where she grew up, enters the university, learns other languages ​​, and spends holidays in foreign countries. Lila stops studying, gets married at 16, gets pregnant, and becomes an adult in the exact location where her parents, Lenu’s, and childhood friends still live.

Lenu is the adventurer who represents all of us, foreigners, who seek opportunities different from those established by our ancestors. Perhaps out of courage, perhaps out of restlessness. She seeks, in places where she has no roots, a more comfortable and less violent reality than the one where her friend stayed.

The protagonist encounters several closed doors on the way, which she tries to open without losing her Neapolitan identity. That’s what I want to talk about. We think of moving as a blank page, but we arrive in a new city with our history, marked by the choices and behaviors of those who came before us. The town, which is new to us, already has its streets delimited, paths determined, and marked cards.

I had to move countries to find out who I am

Seeking to settle elsewhere is a dubious process. As you look forward to new opportunities, you want (and need) to lean on what you already know. Adapting is not a period of trying different weathers and flavors. Adapting is learning to feel safe in an environment where you have no foundation. We feel disoriented because the possibilities established in the new country were not designed by our ancestors but by strangers with different languages ​​and habits.

Lenu becomes a woman outside Naples. But she travels through other cities with the knowledge acquired in her homeland, making choices based on the possibilities that a girl like her can have. People always say that things are changing fast, but the truth is that social structures stay rigid. And succeeding outside your bubble remains hard work.

Throughout life, no matter where we go, we make choices based on prior knowledge. We write our history, in our own vocabulary, in the same book, half-written in our language, half in a foreign language. Our blank page, in fact, is the continuation of an existing book.

Lenu and I left our homes to find out who we are without the influence of those who surrounded us since childhood, but, in general, we remain faithful to our roots.