The Lying Life of Adults
Reader Score
73%
73% of readers
recommend this book
Critic Reviews
Good
Based on 51 reviews on
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The Washington Post - O, The Oprah Magazine - TIME Magazine - NPR - Financial Times - New York Post - Kirkus Reviews - Harper's Bazaar
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLER
In this powerful novel set in a divided Naples by Elena Ferrante, the New York Times best-selling author of My Brilliant Friend, fourteen-year-old Giovanna is searching for her reflection in two kindred cities that fear and detest one another: Naples of the heights, which wears a mask of refinement, and Naples of the depths, a place of excess and vulgarity, where her guide is the unforgettable Aunt Vittoria.
With this new novel about the passage from childhood to adolescence to adulthood, Ferrante gives her readers another gripping, highly addictive, Neapolitan story.
"Another spellbinding coming-of-age tale from a master."--People Magazine
Book Details
- Publisher: Europa Editions
- Publish Date: Sep 21st, 2021
- Pages: 328
- Language: English
- Dimensions: 8.20in - 5.20in - 1.00in - 0.70lb
- EAN: 9781609457150
- Categories: • Women• Literary• Family Life - General
About the Author
Elena Ferrante is the author of The Days of Abandonment (Europa, 2005), which was made into a film directed by Roberto Faenza, Troubling Love (Europa, 2006), adapted by Mario Martone, and The Lost Daughter (Europa, 2008), soon to be a film directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal. 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 quartet" (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.
Ann Goldstein has translated into English all of Elena Ferrante's books, including the New York Times bestseller, The Story of the Lost Child, which was shortlisted for the MAN Booker International Prize. She has been honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship and is the recipient of the PEN Renato Poggioli Translation Award. She lives in New York.
Critics’ reviews
Praise for this book
"What a relief it is when an author who has written a masterpiece returns to prove the gift intact."--The New York Times Book Review
"Reads like a distillation of adolescence itself."--Vogue
"Suspenseful and propulsive...Explores some of the writer's touchiest preoccupations."--The New York Times
"Ferrante once again, with undiminished skill and audacity, creates an emotional force field that has at its heart a young girl on the brink of womanhood."--Wall Street Journal
"Giovanna's fate, containing elements both expected and unexpected, makes her one of this year's most memorable heroines."--The Boston Globe
"Will leave the reader as shaken and invigorated as it does its young protagonist."--Minneapolis Star Tribune
"This is classic Ferrante, better than ever [...] Great stuff."--The Toronto Star
"The Lying Life of Adults affirms that Ferrante is an oracle among authors, writing literary epics as illuminating as origin myths, explaining us to ourselves."--O, The Oprah Magazine
"A marvelously disconcerting novel of disillusionment."--The Atlantic
"A glorious story about the liminal space between childhood and adulthood...A study of the meaning of refinement, beauty and what truth even means."--Good Housekeeping
"This transportive new book is a must read."--Condé Nast Traveler
"A bracing reminder of the complexity of class and of the variegated ways in which human beings process what they lack and decide to fill that void."--The Nation
"At times hilarious and gut-wrenching, Ferrante's novel breaks down society's impossible ideals of beauty and behavior."--Today.com
"A clear-eyed, evocative reminder that the terrain of adulthood is as fraught as the darkest corners of Naples."--Seattle Book Review
"As slinky and scowling as a Neapolitan cat."--Annalisa Quinn, NPR
"Ferrante returns to the splendid squalor of Naples in this cutting and cunning bildungsroman."--O, The Oprah Magazine
"[Ferrante's]characters have wide-spanned souls and so does Naples, exuding the smells of the sea and gasoline and baking crust."--Los Angeles Times