Giovanna's pretty face has changed: it's turning into the face of an ugly, spiteful adolescent. But is she seeing things as they really are? Where must she look to find her true reflection and a life she can claim as her own?Giovanna's search leads her to two kindred cities that fear and detest one another: the Naples of the heights, which assumes a mask of refinement, and the Naples of the depths, a place of excess and vulgarity.
Adrift, she vacillates between these two cities, falling into one then climbing back to the other. Set in a divided Naples, The Lying Life of Adults is a singular portrayal of the transition from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER"This is no amiable coming-of-age tale...
the most intense writing about the experiences and interior life of a girl on the cusp of adulthood that I have ever read. It is brilliant."-The Financial Times"An astonishing, deeply moving tale."-The Guardian "Ferrante confronts female sexual awakening with such an absence of romantic enchantment it leaves you gasping."-The Daily Mail
Elena Ferrante