The Lying Life of Adults

Giovanna’s pretty face has changed: it’s turning into the face of an ugly, spiteful adolescent. But is she seeing things as they really are? Where must she look to find her true reflection and a life she can claim as her own?

Giovanna’s search leads her to two kindred cities that fear and detest one another: the Naples of the heights, which assumes a mask of refinement, and the Naples of the depths, a place of excess and vulgarity. Adrift, she vacillates between these two cities, falling into one then climbing back to the other.

Set in a divided Naples, The Lying Life of Adults is a singular portrayal of the transition from childhood to adolescence to adulthood.

A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

“This is no amiable coming-of-age tale… the most intense writing about the experiences and interior life of a girl on the cusp of adulthood that I have ever read. It is brilliant.”―The Financial Times

“An astonishing, deeply moving tale.”―The Guardian

“Ferrante confronts female sexual awakening with such an absence of romantic enchantment it leaves you gasping.”―The Daily Mail