The Lying Life of Adults
2019 novel by Elena Ferrante
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The Lying Life of Adults (Italian: La vita bugiarda degli adulti) is a 2019 novel by Elena Ferrante. It was adapted into a television series of the same name by Edoardo De Angelis in 2023.
.png) Cover of first edition (Italy) | |
| Author | Elena Ferrante |
|---|---|
| Audio read by | Anna Bonaiuto[1] |
| Original title | La vita bugiarda degli adulti |
| Translator | Ann Goldstein |
| Language | Italian |
| Set in | Naples |
| Publisher | Edizioni e/o |
Publication date | 7 November 2019[2] |
| Publication place | Italy |
Published in English | 1 September 2020 |
| Media type | Print (paperback) |
| Pages | 336 |
| ISBN | 9788833571683 |
| OCLC | 1128092847 |
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.[3] 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.[4][5][6][7] The English translation debuted at number two on The New York Times fiction best-seller list.[8]
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".[9]
Publishers Weekly called Giovanna a "winning character" but nonetheless wrote that the novel "feels minor in comparison to Ferrante's previous work".[10]
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."[11]