The Lying Life of Adults
The Lying Life of Adults is a 2019 novel by Elena Ferrante. It was adapted into a [The Lying Life of Adults (TV series)|television Collection (publishing)|series of the same name] by Edoardo De Angelis in 2023.
Synopsis
In Naples in the early 1990s, twelve-year-old Giovanna Trada overhears her father Andrea disparagingly liken her appearance to that of his estranged sister Vittoria. This sends Giovanna into a search for Vittoria on another side of Naples to discover the nature of the family's fallout.Publication
The novel was first published in Italy in November 2019 by Edizioni e/o, published as part of their Dal Mondo series. An English translation by Ann Goldstein was scheduled to be published by Europa Editions on 9 June 2020, but was postponed to 1 September 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The English translation debuted at number two on The New York Times fiction best-seller list.Reception
In its starred review, Kirkus Reviews praised Goldstein's "fluid" translation and wrote, "Giovanna's nascent sexuality is more frankly explored than that of previous Ferrante protagonists".Publishers Weekly called Giovanna a "winning character" but nonetheless wrote that the novel "feels minor in comparison to Ferrante's previous work".
A review by Parul Sehgal in The New York Times stated that the book "evokes for me all the ordinary, warring paradoxes of intimate life."