The Lying Life of Adults

From the author of My Brilliant Friend, a powerful new novel set in a divided Naples. Soon to be adapted into a Netflix original series.

'Incendiary.' - Mail on Sunday

'The most intense writing about the experiences and interior life of a girl on the cusp of adulthood that I have ever read.' - Financial Times

'An astonishing, deeply moving tale.' - The Guardian

'Modern, urgent, truthful.' - The Telegraph

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.

This powerful new novel set in a divided Naples by bestselling author Elena Ferrante is a singular portrayal of the transition from childhood to adolescence to adulthood.