Mellkoh

This book is the first of a planned trilogy. I'll be interested to see how the story continues.

In this part of the story, we are introduced to Elena and Lila, best friends to the core. Lila is brash and brilliant and the idol of Elena. Elena is inspired to achieve great academic heights in order to live up to her "Brilliant Friend" Lila. It is soon evident though that Elena moves past Lila and that the pedestal that Elena has place Lila on may not be appropriate. This book though, is also about breaking free from the bonds of societal expectations. Elena and Lila are poor and it is very difficult to be so different in such a tight, humble community.

It was also interesting reading this book from a verbage perspective. I found the translation (from the original Italian) to be quite formal and, at times, hard to follows. There was one sentence towards the end (last sentence on pg 312) that spanned 14 lines of print and had 22 commas and 1 semi-colon!!

All in all though, it was an interesting read. I really got the sense that this was the author's own story!