In her first novel since her cherished Neapolitan quartet concluded, the pseudonymous Italian author enters the mind of a 12-year-old girl named Giovanna, who at the outset of the book overhears a conversation between her parents in which her father calls her ugly. More specifically—though he denies the remark’s seriousness—that she is the kind of ugly possessed by the wretched aunt she knows only through reputation. In Elena Ferrante’s latest novel, translated by Ann Goldstein, Giovanna sets out to meet her aunt, who proves to be both as described and uniquely honest, and she encourages Giovanna to pay close attention to her parents just as their marriage begins to fail. As Giovanna grows into a young woman full of questions but bereft of trustable answers (if there are any), Ferrante portrays Giovanna’s inner life with the acuity her readers have come to crave.
Buy Now: The Lying Life of Adults on Bookshop | Amazon
- Introducing the 2024 TIME100 Next
- Sabrina Carpenter Has Waited Her Whole Life for This
- What Lies Ahead for the Middle East
- Why It's So Hard to Quit Vaping
- Jeremy Strong on Taking a Risk With a New Film About Trump
- Our Guide to Voting in the 2024 Election
- The 10 Races That Will Determine Control of the Senate
- Column: How My Shame Became My Strength
