The Lying Life of Adults - by Elena Ferrante (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

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

Review Quotes

"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