The new highly acclaimed novel by the "author" of the world-famous Genius Girlfriend
"Two years before, before my father left home, he told my mother, I'm so ugly, " begins the teenage Giovanna's story, the protagonist of Elena Ferrante's new novel. From the world-renowned author of the Genius Girlfriend saga comes another captivating tale of the journey from childhood to adulthood. Giovanna, who is undergoing a major transformation as she grows up, recalls the devastating effect her father's words had on her when she was twelve years old. He begins to perceive his parents, educated teachers moving in intellectual circles, seemingly invincible and loving, differently. When she asks why she never met her father's family, she is met with lies, pretense and tangled relationships. Aunt Vittoria, who lives in a working-class neighbourhood and was once "cut off" by her father, becomes the key to her alienation.
Ferrante remains faithful to Naples in this novel, this time it is the Naples of the 1990s. Giovanna is torn between the double face of the city - rich, with a mask of sophistication, and poor, wild and vulgar. The Italian edition of The Lost Life of Adults caused a sensation at home. The book is published simultaneously in 25 countries.
Netflix and Italian production company Fandango are developing a series based on the book.
