The book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLER. Soon to be a NETFLIX Original Series.
A POWERFUL NEW NOVEL set in a divided Naples by ELENA FERRANTE, the New York Times best-selling author of My Brilliant Friend and The Lost Daughter
A BEST BOOK OF 2020
The Washington Post・O, The Oprah Magazine・TIME Magazine・Financial Times・The Times UK・Irish Times・New York Post・Kirkus Reviews・Harper’s Bazaar
“There’s no doubt [the publication of The Lying Life of Adults] will be the literary event of the year.”—Elle Magazine
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 fear and detest one another: Naples of the heights, which assumes a mask of refinement, and Naples of the depths, a place of excess and vulgarity. She moves from one to the other in search of the truth, but neither city seems to offer answers or escape.
Named one of 2016’s most influential people by TIME Magazine and frequently touted as a future Nobel Prize-winner, Elena Ferrante has become one of the world’s most read and beloved writers. With this new novel about the transition from childhood to adolescence to adulthood, Ferrante proves once again that she deserves her many accolades. In The Lying Life of Adults, readers will discover another gripping, highly addictive, and totally unforgettable Neapolitan story.
The author
Elena Ferrante
Elena Ferrante is the author of The Days of Abandonment (Europa, 2005), Troubling Love (Europa, 2006), and The Lost Daughter (Europa, 2008), now a film directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal and starring Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, and Jessie Buckley. She is also the author of Incidental Inventions (Europa, 2019), illustrated by Andrea Ucini; Frantumaglia: A Writer’s Journey (Europa, 2016); and a children’s picture book illustrated by Mara Cerri, The Beach at Night (Europa, 2016). The four volumes known as the “Neapolitan novels” (My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, and The Story of the Lost Child) were published by Europa Editions in English between 2012 and 2015. My Brilliant Friend, the HBO series directed by Saverio Costanzo, premiered in 2018. The adaptation of Ferrante’s most recent novel, The Lying Life of Adults (Europa, 2020), debuted on Netflix in 2023.
Press
- Sep 14 2021
“How we should hope to know Ferrante.”
— Cleveland Review of Books - Mar 10 2021
"Gritty.”
— The Sunday Times (ANZ) - Nov 28 2020
“...three hundred pages of quick and honest prose.”
— Scroll.In - Nov 27 2020
“Page-turner.”
— The Times UK - Nov 25 2020
“Raw, intense, delightful, refreshing.”
— Word by word - Nov 2 2020
“...holding the reader in thrall.”
— The Millstone