My Brilliant Friend: Adolescence: Chapter 38 Summary & Analysis

Lila’s life begins to change rapidly. Lenù accompanies Lila on frequent trips to visit Stefano at the grocery over the next several days. On their walks there, they gossip endlessly about Stefano and Marcello, plotting out the minutia of how to “make things come out right.” Lenù realizes that Lila’s plan is not just to help her family’s business by goading Stefano into buying the shoes, but to secure a marriage proposal from Stefano in order to escape the hated Marcello.

Three days later, Stefano returns and purchases the too-tight shoes. Stefano pays 25,000 lira for the shoes and another 20 for Lila’s drawings, announcing his intention to have them framed. A few days later, he informs Fernando that he has rented the space next to the shop; if Fernando wants to expand, Stefano says, all he needs to do is say so. Lila privately tells her father and brother that Stefano is prepared to invest in a workshop for making Cerullo shoes. In all of the hubbub surrounding the possibility of expansion, the Cerullos begin behaving somewhat distractedly toward Marcello when he arrives for dinner each night.

Eventually, Rino convinces the uncertain Fernando to accept Stefano’s offer. Fernando calls Stefano to the shop and tells him that if Stefano puts up the expenses, he and Rino will begin production on the shoes right away. Stefano says he’ll pay two or three workers to join the shop and start immediately. Fernando is hesitant, insisting on employing himself the craft he has learned from his father—but Stefano insists upon having Lila’s exact designs made at once. When Rino asks skeptically if Lila knows about and has agreed to all of these terms, Stefano replies that nothing can ever be done if Lila doesn’t agree with it.