#1 BEST BOOK OF THE CENTURY - NEW YORK TIMES
Now an HBO series: the first volume in the New York Times-bestselling enduring masterpiece about a lifelong friendship between two women from Naples (The Atlantic).
Beginning in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Elena Ferrante's four-volume story spans almost sixty years, as its main characters, the fiery and unforgettable Lila and the bookish narrator, Elena, become women, wives, mothers, and leaders, all the while maintaining a complex and at times conflicted friendship. This first novel in the series follows Lila and Elena from their fateful meeting as ten-year-olds through their school years and adolescence.
Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between two women.
An intoxicatingly furious portrait of enmeshed friends.--Entertainment Weekly Spectacular.--Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air Captivating.--The New YorkerA novel in the bestselling quartet about two very different women and their complex friendship: Everyone should read anything with Ferrante's name on it (The Boston Globe).
The follow-up to My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name continues the epic New York Times-bestselling literary quartet that has inspired an HBO series, and returns us to the world of Lila and Elena, who grew up together in post-WWII Naples, Italy. In The Story of a New Name, Lila has recently married and made her entrée into the family business; Elena, meanwhile, continues her studies and her exploration of the world beyond the neighborhood that she so often finds stifling. Marriage appears to have imprisoned Lila, and the pressure to excel is at times too much for Elena. Yet the two young women share a complex and evolving bond that is central to their emotional lives and a source of strength in the face of life's challenges. In these Neapolitan Novels, Elena Ferrante, one of the great novelists of our time (The New York Times), gives us a poignant and universal story about friendship and belonging, a meditation on love and jealousy, freedom and commitment--at once a masterfully plotted page-turner and an intense, generous-hearted family saga. Imagine if Jane Austen got angry and you'll have some idea of how explosive these works are.--The Australian Brilliant . . . captivating and insightful . . . the richness of her storytelling is likely to please fans of Sara Gruen and Silvia Avallone.--Booklist (starred review)A BEST BOOK OF THE CENTURY - NEW YORK TIMES
The stunning conclusion to the bestselling saga of the fierce lifelong bond between two women, from a gritty Naples childhood through old age (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
The Story of the Lost Child concludes the dazzling saga of two women, the brilliant, bookish Elena and the fiery, uncontainable Lila, who first met amid the shambles of postwar Italy. In this book, life's great discoveries have been made; its vagaries and losses have been suffered. Through it all, the women's friendship remains the gravitational center of their lives.
Both women once fought to escape the neighborhood in which they grew up. Elena married, moved to Florence, started a family, and published several well-received books. But now, she has returned to Naples to be with the man she has always loved. Lila, on the other hand, never succeeded in freeing herself from Naples. She has become a successful entrepreneur, but her success draws her into closer proximity with the nepotism, chauvinism, and criminal violence that infect her neighborhood. Yet, somehow, this proximity to a world she has always rejected only brings her role as unacknowledged leader of that world into relief.
Lila is a magnificent character.--The Atlantic Everyone should read anything with Ferrante's name on it. --The Boston GlobeA BEST BOOK OF THE CENTURY - NEW YORK TIMES
From the New York Times-bestselling author of My Brilliant Friend, this novel of a deserted wife's descent into despair--and rage--is a masterpiece (The Philadelphia Inquirer).
The Days of Abandonment is the gripping story of an Italian woman's experiences after being suddenly left by her husband after fifteen years of marriage. With two young children to care for, Olga finds it more and more difficult to do the things she used to: keep a spotless house, cook meals with creativity and passion, refrain from using obscenities. After running into her husband with his much-younger new lover in public, she cannot even refrain from assaulting him physically. In a raging, torrential voice (The New York Times), Olga conveys her journey from denial to devastating emptiness--and when she finds herself literally trapped within the four walls of their high-rise apartment, she is forced to confront her ghosts, the potential loss of her own identity, and the possibility that life may never return to normal. Intelligent and darkly comic.--Publishers Weekly Remarkable, lucid, austerely honest.--The New YorkerPart of the bestselling saga about childhood friends following different paths by one of the great novelists of our time (The New York Times).
In the third book in the New York Times-bestselling Neapolitan quartet that inspired the HBO series My Brilliant Friend, Elena and Lila have grown into womanhood. Lila married at sixteen and has a young son; she has left her husband and the comforts her marriage brought and now works as a common laborer. Elena has left the neighborhood, earned her college degree, and published a successful novel, all of which has opened the doors to a world of learned interlocutors and richly furnished salons. Both women are pushing against the walls of a prison that would have seen them living a life of misery, ignorance, and submission. They are afloat on the great sea of opportunities that opened up for women during the 1970s. And yet, they are still very much bound to each other in a book that shows off Ferrante's strong storytelling ability and will leave readers eager for the final volume of the series (Library Journal).
One of modern fiction's richest portraits of a friendship. --NPR
#1 BEST BOOK OF THE CENTURY - NEW YORK TIMES
Now an HBO series: the first volume in the New York Times-bestselling enduring masterpiece about a lifelong friendship between two women from Naples (The Atlantic).
Beginning in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Elena Ferrante's four-volume story spans almost sixty years, as its main characters, the fiery and unforgettable Lila and the bookish narrator, Elena, become women, wives, mothers, and leaders, all the while maintaining a complex and at times conflicted friendship. This first novel in the series follows Lila and Elena from their fateful meeting as ten-year-olds through their school years and adolescence.
Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between two women.
An intoxicatingly furious portrait of enmeshed friends.--Entertainment Weekly
Spectacular.--Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air
Captivating.--The New Yorker
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
The complete four-volume boxed set of the New York Times-bestselling saga, including the New York Times #1 Best Book of the Century, My Brilliant Friend.
Beginning with My Brilliant Friend, the four Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante follow Elena and Lila, from their rough-edged upbringing in Naples, Italy, not long after WWII, through the many stages of their lives--and along paths that diverge wildly. Sometimes they are separated by jealousy or hostility or physical distance, but the bond between them is unbreakable, for better or for worse.
This volume includes all four novels: My Brilliant Friend; The Story of a New Name; Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay; and The Story of the Lost Child.
Imagine if Jane Austen got angry and you'll have some idea of how explosive these works are.--The Australian
Nothing you read about Elena Ferrante's work prepares you for the ferocity of it.--The New York Times
An enduring masterpiece.--The Atlantic
NOW A MOTION PICTURE NOMINATED FOR THREE OSCARS--Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay--Directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal and starring Olivia Colman, Jesse Buckley, Paul Mescal, and Dakota Johnson Another penetrating Neapolitan story from New York Times best-selling author of My Brilliant Friend and The Lying Life of Adults
Leda, a middle-aged divorcée, is alone for the first time in years after her two adult daughters leave home to live with their father in Toronto. Enjoying an unexpected sense of liberty, she heads to the Ionian coast for a vacation. But she soon finds herself intrigued by Nina, a young mother on the beach, eventually striking up a conversation with her. After Nina confides a dark secret, one seemingly trivial occurrence leads to events that could destroy Nina's family in this arresting novel by the author of the New York Times-bestselling Neapolitan Novels, which have sold millions of copies and been adapted into an HBO series (Publishers Weekly). Although much of the drama takes place in [Leda's] head, Ferrante's gift for psychological horror renders it immediate and visceral.--The New Yorker Ferrante's prose is stunningly candid, direct and unforgettable. From simple elements, she builds a powerful tale of hope and regret.--Publishers WeeklyA woman goes home to Naples after her mother's mysterious death in a tour de force by the New York Times-bestselling author of My Brilliant Friend (Seattle Times).
Following her mother's untimely and unexplained drowning, which was preceded by a series of strange phone calls, forty-five-year-old Delia leaves Rome and embarks on a voyage of discovery through the beguiling yet often hostile streets of her native Naples. She is searching for the truth about her family and the men in her mother's life, past and present, including an abusive husband. What she discovers will be more unsettling than she imagines, but will also reveal truths about herself, in this psychological mystery marked by tactile, beautifully restrained prose (Publishers Weekly) about mothers and daughters and the complicated knot of lies and emotions that binds them.
Ferrante's polished language belies the rawness of her imagery. --The New Yorker
With the quick-paced mystery guiding the story, Delia explores her relationship with her mother, unraveling memories and secrets repressed since childhood and coming to terms with an upbringing filled with jealousy and violence . . . Troubling Love is vivid and powerful. --Library Journal
Four pitch-perfect (Oprah Daily) essays by the author of My Brilliant Friend and The Lost Daughter.
In these four crisp essays, Ferrante offers a rare look into the origins of her literary prowess. She describes her influences, her struggles, and her formation as both a reader and a writer; she warns against the perils of bad language and the ways in which it has long excluded women's truth; she proposes a choral fusion of feminine talent as she brilliantly discourses on the work of Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, Ingeborg Bachmann, and many others.
An incandescent...philosophical monograph on the nature of writing, (Molly Young, New York Times) this candid collection by one of the great novelists of our time is destined to delight general readers, writers, and Ferrante fans in equal measure.
Everyone should read everything with Elena Ferrante's name on it.--The Boston Globe
A NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLER
A BEST BOOK OF 2022 (Air Mail)
Four new and revelatory essays by the author of My Brilliant Friend and The Lost Daughter.
In 2020, Claire Luchette in O, The Oprah Magazine described the beloved Italian novelist Elena Ferrante as an oracle among authors. Here, in these four crisp essays, Ferrante offers a rare look at the origins of her literary powers. She writes about her influences, her struggles, and her formation as both a reader and a writer; she describes the perils of bad language and suggests ways in which it has long excluded women's truth; she proposes a choral fusion of feminine talent as she brilliantly discourses on the work of Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, Ingeborg Bachmann, and many others.
Here is a subtle yet candid book by one of the great novelists of our time about adventures in literature, both in and out of the margins.
Everyone should read everything with Elena Ferrante's name on it.--The Boston Globe
A novel in the bestselling quartet about two very different women and their complex friendship: Everyone should read anything with Ferrante's name on it (The Boston Globe).
The follow-up to My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name continues the epic New York Times-bestselling literary quartet that has inspired an HBO series, and returns us to the world of Lila and Elena, who grew up together in post-WWII Naples, Italy.
In The Story of a New Name, Lila has recently married and made her entr e into the family business; Elena, meanwhile, continues her studies and her exploration of the world beyond the neighborhood that she so often finds stifling. Marriage appears to have imprisoned Lila, and the pressure to excel is at times too much for Elena. Yet the two young women share a complex and evolving bond that is central to their emotional lives and a source of strength in the face of life's challenges. In these Neapolitan Novels, Elena Ferrante, one of the great novelists of our time (The New York Times), gives us a poignant and universal story about friendship and belonging, a meditation on love and jealousy, freedom and commitment--at once a masterfully plotted page-turner and an intense, generous-hearted family saga.
Imagine if Jane Austen got angry and you'll have some idea of how explosive these works are. --The Australian
Brilliant . . . captivating and insightful . . . the richness of her storytelling is likely to please fans of Sara Gruen and Silvia Avallone. --Booklist (starred review)
Elena Ferrante is the best-selling author of My Brilliant Friend, now an HBO original series. Collected here for the first time are the seeds of future novels, the timely reflections of this internationally beloved storyteller, the abiding preoccupations of a writer who has been called one of the great novelists of our time (New York Times).
This is my last column, after a year that has scared and inspired me . . . I have written as an author of novels, taking on matters that are important to me and that--if I have the will and the time--I'd like to develop within real narrative mechanisms. With these words, Elena Ferrante bid farewell to her year-long collaboration with the Guardian newspaper. For a full year, she wrote weekly articles, the subjects of which had been suggested by Guardian editors, making the writing process a sort of prolonged interlocution. The subjects ranged from first love to climate change, from enmity among women to the experience of seeing her novels adapted for film and TV. Translated by Ann Goldstein, the acclaimed translator of Ferrante's novels, and accompanied by Andrea Ucini's intelligent, witty, and beautiful illustrations, this volume is a must for all curious readers.A beautifully written dark fable from a doll's point of view--by the New York Times-bestselling author of The Lost Daughter and the Neapolitan Novels (The Washington Post).
One of NPR's Best Books of the Year.
Readers of Elena Ferrante's The Lost Daughter may recall the little doll--lost or stolen--around which that novel revolves. Here, Ferrante retells the tale from the doll's perspective.
Celina is having a terrible night, one full of jealousy for the new kitten, Min ; feelings of abandonment and sadness; misadventures at the hands of the beach attendant; and dark dreams. But she will be happily found by Mati, her child, once the sun rises . . .
Everyone should read anything with Ferrante's name on it. --The Boston Globe