The Lying Life of Adults
Elena Ferrante
Translated by ann goldstein
(europa editions, 336 PP, £20)
Tablet bookshop price £18 • tel 020 7799 4064

“Two years before leaving home my father said to my mother that I was very ugly.” The opening words of Elena Ferrante’s latest novel haunt her young protagonist throughout her unwelcome adolescence. When Giovanna’s father, Andrea, claims she resembles his working-class sister, Vittoria (whom he has shunned since his marriage to Nella), it sets off a chain of rebellious acts in his 12-year-old daughter.

Once again, Naples is Ferrante’s stunning backdrop and she explores the familiar emotional landscape of her previous novels. Andrea and Nella are teachers living high up in the city’s middle-class district. Unable to find any photographs of her aunt, Giovanna decides they have to meet. During their first encounter, her father stubbornly sits in his car outside Vittoria’s apartment in the rundown Industrial Zone. Giovanna finds her gloriously uncouth, wild and passionate with “a beauty so unbearable that to consider her ugly became a necessity”.