The Neapolitan Novels, Volume 2

Now Available in B-format Paperback

Lila has recently married and made her entrée into the family business; Elena, meanwhile, continues her studies and her exploration of the world beyond the neighbourhood that she so often finds stifling. Love, jealousy, family, freedom, commitment, and above all friendship: these are signs under which both women live out this phase in their stories. Marriage appears to have imprisoned Lila, and the pressure to excel is at times too much for Elena. Yet the two young women share a complex and evolving bond that is central to their emotional lives and is a source of strength in the face of life’s challenges. In these Neapolitan Novels, Elena Ferrante gives readers a poignant and universal story about friendship and belonging.

“An extraordinary epic.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“An unconditional masterpiece . . . I was totally enthralled.”—Jhumpa Lahiri

“The only book ever to make me shout out loud at a revelation in the story.”—The Guardian

“A beautiful and delicate tale of confluence and reversal.”—James Wood, The New Yorker

Elena Ferrante
Elena Ferrante is the author of The Days of Abandonment (Europa, 2005), Troubling Love (Europa, 2006), The Lost Daughter (Europa, 2008), and the four novels 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) which were published by Europa Editions between 2012 and 2015. My Brilliant Friend, the HBO series directed by Saverio Costanzo, premiered in 2018. Ferrante is also the author of Frantumaglia: A Writer’s Journey (Europa, 2016), a children’s picture book illustrated by Mara Cerri, The Beach at Night (Europa, 2016), and a collection of personal essays illustrated by Andrea Ucini entitled Incidental Inventions (Europa, 2019). The Lost Daughter will be made into a feature film directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal and starring Olivia Colman. Her most recent novel is The Lying Life of Adults (Europa, 2020). In the Margins, a collection of original essays on reading and writing, was published by Europa in 2022.

• Dec 9 2015
  The Best Book I Read This Year
  — The Atlantic
• Nov 3 2015
  The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante Translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein
  — James Reads Books
• Sep 28 2015
  "It’s raw and brilliant, with a light that shines unblinking on its characters.”
  — The Phraser
• Sep 20 2015
  "Are Ferrante’s books autobiographical, as everyone speculates? Yes, perhaps: we all have difficult friendships; but these also seem to be about different aspects of the same person."
  — Mirabile Dictu
• Sep 19 2015
  "The prose isn't pretty or elegant: the English translation (by Ann Goldstein) is terrifically simple and understated . . . But it's the power of the emotions bleeding through the words that grips you."
  — The Idle Woman
• Sep 13 2015
  "Ferrante is able to evoke a world that [. . .] is both ‘fresh’ and ‘alive’, full of mystery and beauty, and one that deserves to be read and re-read."
  — Bookish Ramblings