The Lying Life of Adults

2019 novel by Elena Ferrante From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.

Quick facts Author, Audio read by ...
The Lying Life of Adults
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Cover of first edition (Italy)
AuthorElena Ferrante
Audio read byAnna Bonaiuto[1]
Original titleLa vita bugiarda degli adulti
TranslatorAnn Goldstein
LanguageItalian
Set inNaples
PublisherEdizioni e/o
Publication date
7 November 2019[2]
Publication placeItaly
Published in English
1 September 2020
Media typePrint (paperback)
Pages336
ISBN9788833571683
OCLC1128092847
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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]

Television adaptation

In May 2020, Netflix announced it would be adapting The Lying Life of Adults into a television series of the same name in collaboration with Italy's Fandango production company.[12][13][14][15] The series was released by Netflix in January 2023.[16]

References

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