I'm Gilbert Cruz, editor of the New York Times Book Review and this is the Book Review

podcast.

This week we have our monthly Book Club episode hosted by M.J. Franklin.

Our last one was about the talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith.

That book is the basis for the absolutely killer 1999 film adaptation

as well as for the recent Netflix series

starring Andrew Scott as the titular sociopath.

This month,

M.J gathers a group of editors to talk about my brilliant friend by Elena Ferrante,

which recently topped the book reviews poll of great 21st century books.

I'll let MJ take it away.

Hello and welcome to another book club episode of the Book Review

podcast. I'm M.J Franklin. I'm an editor here at the New York Times Book Review and

for this month's book club we're talking about my brilliant friend by Elena Ferrante.

This felt like a natural book club selection for August because last month the book review hosted a big project

pulling hundreds of literary luminaries about the best books of the 21st century so far and the number one book was,

you guessed it, my brilliant friend.

And then we asked our readers, what do you think were the best books?

And my brilliant friend came in at number eight.

That is all to say.

You love this book, so we decided to talk about it and speaking of talking about it I have in the

studio with me a full house of expert readers that I'm excited to introduce.

...