Synopses & Reviews
"Elena Ferrante will blow you away."-Alice Sebold, author of
The Lovely Bones From the author of The Days of Abandonment, The Lost Daughter is Elena Ferrante's most compelling and perceptive meditation on womanhood and motherhood yet. Leda, a middle-aged divorce, is alone for the first time in years when her daughters leave home to live with their father. Her initial, unexpected sense of liberty turns to ferocious introspection following a seemingly trivial occurrence. Ferrante's language is as finely tuned and intense as ever, and she treats her theme with a fierce, candid tenacity.
Review
Praise for Elena Ferrante and The Neapolitan Novels
“Everyone should read anything with Ferrantes name on it.” —The Boston Globe
“Ferrantes novels are intensely, violently personal, and because of this they seem to dangle bristling key chains of confession before the unsuspecting reader.” —James Wood, The New Yorker
“One of the more nuanced portraits of feminine friendship in recent memory.” —Megan OGrady, Vogue
“Amazing! My Brilliant Friend took my breath away. If I were president of the world I would make everyone read this book. It is so honest and right and opens up heart to so much. Reading Ferrante reminded me of that child-like excitement when you cant look up from the page, when your eyes seem to be popping from your head, when you think: I didnt know books could do this!” —Elizabeth Strout, author of Olive Kitteridge
“Elena Ferrante will blow you away.” —Alice Sebold, author of The Lovely Bones
“Ferrantes emotional and carnal candor are so potent." —Janet Maslin, The New York Times
“I like the Italian writer, Elena Ferrante, a lot. I've been reading all her work and all about her.” — John Waters, actor and director
“"Elena Ferrante tackles girlhood and friendship with amazing force.”— Gwenyth Paltrow
“Elena Ferrante may be the best contemporary novelist youve never heard of”— The Economist
“[Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels] dont merely offer a teeming vision of working-class Naples, with its cobblers and professors, communists and mobbed-up businessmen, womanizing poets and downtrodden wives; they present one of modern fictions richest portraits of a friendship.” —John Powers, Fresh Air, NPR
“Ferrantes freshness has nothing to do with fashion…it is imbued with the most haunting music of all, the echoes of literary history.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Elena Ferrantes THE STORY OF A NEW NAME, book two in her Naples series. Two words. Read it.” —Ann Hood, author of The Obituary Writer
“Ferrante writes with a ferocious, intimate urgency.” —Susanna Sonnenberg, author of Her Last Death: A Memoir
“The Days of Abandonment is a powerful, heartrending novel.” —Jhumpa Lahiri, author of The Lowlands
“I am such a fan of Ferrantes work, and have been for quite a while.” —Jennifer Gilmore, author of The Mothers
“No one has a voice quite like Ferrante's. Her gritty, ruthlessly frank novels roar off the page with a barbed fury, like an attack that is also a defense…Imagine if Jane Austen got angry and you'll have some idea of how explosive these works are.” —John Freeman, The Australian
“The womens fraught relationship and shifting fortunes are the life forces of the poignant book” — Publishers Weekly
"An engrossing, wildly original contemporary epic about the demonic power of human (and particularly female) creativity checked by the forces of history and society." — The Los Angeles Review of Books
Synopsis
From the author of My Brilliant FriendLeda is a middle-aged divorcee devoted to her work as an English teacher and to her two children. When her daughters leave home to be with their father in Canada, Leda anticipates a period of loneliness and longing. Instead, slightly embarassed by the sensation, she feels liberated, as if her life has become lighter, easier. She decides to take a holiday by the sea, in a small coastal town in southern Italy. But after a few days of calm and quiet, things begin to take a menacing turn. Leda encounters a family whose brash presence proves unsettling, at times even threatening. When a small, seemingly meaningless, event occurs, Leda is overwhelmed by memories of the difficult and unconventional choices she made as a mother and their consequences for herself and her family. The apparently serene tale of a woman's pleasant rediscovery of herself soon becomes the story of a ferocious confrontation with an unsettled past.
Following the extraordinary success of The Days of Abandonment, Elena Ferrante's standalone novel The Lost Duaghter candidly explores the conflicting emotions that tie us to our children.
Synopsis
Basis for the upcoming Maggie Gyllenhaal film starring Olivia Colman and Dakota Johnson: An edgy tale of mixed feelings and motherhood by the author of My Brilliant Friend.
Leda, a middle-aged divorc e, is alone for the first time in years after her two adult daughters leave home to live with their father in Toronto. Enjoying an unexpected sense of liberty, she heads to the Ionian coast for a vacation. But she soon finds herself intrigued by Nina, a young mother on the beach, eventually striking up a conversation with her. After Nina confides a dark secret, one seemingly trivial occurrence leads to events that could destroy Nina's family in this "arresting" novel by the author of the New York Times-bestselling Neapolitan Novels, which have sold millions of copies and been adapted into an HBO series (Publishers Weekly).
"Although much of the drama takes place in Leda's] head, Ferrante's gift for psychological horror renders it immediate and visceral." --The New Yorker
"Ferrante's prose is stunningly candid, direct and unforgettable. From simple elements, she builds a powerful tale of hope and regret." --Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
Another penetrating Neapolitan story from New York Times best-selling author of My Brilliant Friend, soon to be a major motion picture directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal and starring Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, Paul Mescal, and Peter Sarsgaard
Leda, a middle-aged divorc e, is alone for the first time in years after her two adult daughters leave home to live with their father in Toronto. Enjoying an unexpected sense of liberty, she heads to the Ionian coast for a vacation. But she soon finds herself intrigued by Nina, a young mother on the beach, eventually striking up a conversation with her. After Nina confides a dark secret, one seemingly trivial occurrence leads to events that could destroy Nina's family in this "arresting" novel by the author of the New York Times-bestselling Neapolitan Novels, which have sold millions of copies and been adapted into an HBO series (Publishers Weekly).
"Although much of the drama takes place in Leda's] head, Ferrante's gift for psychological horror renders it immediate and visceral." --The New Yorker
"Ferrante's prose is stunningly candid, direct and unforgettable. From simple elements, she builds a powerful tale of hope and regret." --Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
NOW A MOTION PICTURE NOMINATED FOR THREE OSCARS--Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay--Directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal and starring Olivia Colman, Jesse Buckley, Paul Mescal, and Dakota Johnson Another penetrating Neapolitan story from New York Times best-selling author of My Brilliant Friend and The Lying Life of Adults
Leda, a middle-aged divorc e, is alone for the first time in years after her two adult daughters leave home to live with their father in Toronto. Enjoying an unexpected sense of liberty, she heads to the Ionian coast for a vacation. But she soon finds herself intrigued by Nina, a young mother on the beach, eventually striking up a conversation with her. After Nina confides a dark secret, one seemingly trivial occurrence leads to events that could destroy Nina's family in this "arresting" novel by the author of the New York Times-bestselling Neapolitan Novels, which have sold millions of copies and been adapted into an HBO series (Publishers Weekly).
"Although much of the drama takes place in Leda's] head, Ferrante's gift for psychological horror renders it immediate and visceral."--The New Yorker
"Ferrante's prose is stunningly candid, direct and unforgettable. From simple elements, she builds a powerful tale of hope and regret."--Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
The author of "The Days of Abandonment" pens her most compelling and perceptive meditation on womanhood and motherhood yet.
About the Author
Elena Ferrante was born in Naples. She is the bestselling author of The Days of Abandonment, which the New York Times described as “stunning,” Troubling Love, and The Lost Daughter. Her latest novel and the first in a trilogy, My Brilliant Friend, will be available from Europa Editions on September 25, 2012.