Format: 22nd trade paperback printing

 

Condition: Near fine, light edge and corner wear. Softcover.

 

Publishing Info: Europa Editions, 2012

 

ISBN: 9781609450786

 

Neapolitan Novels, Book One

 

Now an HBO series: the first volume in the New York Times bestselling enduring masterpiece about a lifelong friendship between two women from Naples.

 

The story begins in the 1950s, in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples. Growing up on these tough streets the two girls learn to rely on each other ahead of anyone or anything else. As they grow, as their paths repeatedly diverge and converge, Elena and Lila remain best friends whose respective destinies are reflected and refracted in the other. They are likewise the embodiment of a nation undergoing momentous change. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her protagonists, the unforgettable Elena and Lila.

 

About the Author: Elena Ferrante is the author of The Days of Abandonment, which was made into a film directed by Roberto Faenza, Troubling Love, adapted by Mario Martone, and The Lost Daughter, soon to be a film directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal. She is also the author of Incidental Inventions, illustrated by Andrea Ucini, Frantumaglia: A Writer's Journey and a children's picture book illustrated by Mara Cerri, The Beach at Night. The four volumes known as the Neapolitan quartet" (My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, and The Story of the Lost Child ) were published in English between 2012 and 2015. My Brilliant Friend, the HBO series directed by Saverio Costanzo, premiered in 2018.

 

Ann Goldstein has translated into English all of Elena Ferrante's books, including the New York Times bestseller, The Story of the Lost Child, which was shortlisted for the MAN Booker International Prize. She has been honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship and is the recipient of the PEN Renato Poggioli Translation Award. She lives in New York.

 

More historical fiction on shop books

 

New Yorker profile on Ferrante