Elena Ferrante

Ann Goldstein

The international bestseller, now in B-format paperback with a brand new cover.

The Story of a New Name

A novel in the bestselling quartet about two very different women and their complex friendship: “Everyone should read anything with Ferrante’s name on it” (The Boston Globe). The follow-up to My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name continues the epic New York Times–bestselling literary quartet that has inspired an HBO series, and returns us to the world of Lila and Elena, who grew up together in post-WWII Naples, Italy. In The Story of a New Name, 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 neighborhood that she so often finds stifling. 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 a source of strength in the face of life’s challenges. In these Neapolitan Novels, Elena Ferrante, “one of the great novelists of our time” (The New York Times), gives us a poignant and universal story about friendship and belonging, a meditation on love and jealousy, freedom and commitment—at once a masterfully plotted page-turner and an intense, generous-hearted family saga. “Imagine if Jane Austen got angry and you’ll have some idea of how explosive these works are.” —The Australian “Brilliant . . . captivating and insightful . . . the richness of her storytelling is likely to please fans of Sara Gruen and Silvia Avallone.” —Booklist (starred review)

I understood that I had arrived there full of pride and realized that—in good faith, certainly, with affection—I had made that whole journey mainly to show her what she had lost and what I had won. But she had known from the moment I appeared, and now, risking tensions with her work-mates, and fines, she was explaining to me that I had won nothing, that in the world there is nothing to win, that her life was full of varied and foolish adventures as much as mine, and that time simply slipped away without any meaning, and it was good just to see each other every so often to hear the mad sound of the brain of one echo in the mad sound of the brain of the other.

I tossed nervously in my bed, unable to sleep. I'm lying to myself, I thought. Had it really been so wonderful? I knew very well that at that time, too, there had been shame. And uneasiness, and humiliation, and disgust: accept, submit, force yourself. Is it possible that even happy moments of pleasure never stand up to a rigorous examination? Possible.

Suddenly I was aware of that almost. Had I made it? Almost. Had I torn myself away from Naples, the neighbor-hood? Almost. Did I have new friends, male and female, who came from cultured backgrounds, often more cultured than the one that Professor Galiani and her children belonged to? Almost. From one exam to the next, had I become a student who was well received by the solemn professors who questioned me? Almost. Behind the almost I seemed to see how things stood. I was afraid. I was afraid as I had been the day I arrived in Pisa. I was scared of anyone who had that culture without the almost, with casual confidence.

Gone was the pleasure of reeducating my voice, my gestures, my way of dressing and walk-ing, as if I were competing for the prize of best disguise, the mask worn so well that it was almost a face.

For the first time, I left Naples, left Campania. I discovered that I was afraid of everything: afraid of taking the wrong train, afraid of having to pee and not knowing where to do it, afraid that it would be night and I wouldn't be able to orient myself in an unfamiliar city, afraid of being robbed. I put all my money in my bra, as my mother did, and spent hours in a state of wary anxiety that coexisted seamlessly with a growing sense of liberation.

Everything in the world was in precarious balance, pure risk, and those who didn't agree to take the risk wasted away in a corner, without getting to know life. I understood suddenly why I hadn't had Nino, why Lila had had him. I wasn't capable of entrusting myself to true feelings. I didn't know how to be drawn beyond the limits. I didn't possess that emotional power that had driven Lila to do all she could to enjoy that day and that night. I stayed behind, waiting. She, on the other hand, seized things, truly wanted them, was passionate about them, played for all or nothing, and wasn't afraid of contempt, mockery, spitting, beatings. She deserved Nino, in other words, because she thought that to love him meant to try to have him, not to hope that he would want her.

"I have something that hurts here, behind the eyes, something is pressing. You see the knives there? They're too sharp—I just gave them to the knife grinder. While I'm slicing salami I think how much blood there is in a person's body. If you put too much stuff in things, they break. Or they catch fire and burn. I'm glad the wedding picture burned. The marriage should burn, too, the shop, the shoes, the Solaras, everything."

Maybe the wealth we wanted as children is this, I thought: not strongboxes full of diamonds and gold coins but a bathtub, to immerse yourself like this every day, to eat bread, salami, prosciutto, to have a lot of space even in the bathroom, to have a telephone, a pantry and icebox full of food, a photograph in a silver frame on the sideboard that shows you in your wedding dress—to have this 

, with the kitchen, the bedroom, the dining room, the two balconies, and the little room where I am studying, and where, even though Lila hasn't said so, soon, when it comes, a baby will sleep.

This series has really picked up momentum. I’m all in after book 2

Sarah Erle

Tom Koss

better than the first, which is nigh impossible. the best book in the series imo. vicious and horrific. a soap opera so sharply done that you’ll be dizzy by the end from all the inhaled gasps. 

lauren amitirigala

Splendidly written, a book that gives voice to the unheard yet incredibly courageous, daring and intelligent women that exist and have existed in the margins of our history. Every phase of Elena's teenage years and growth enlightened me, and also made me seen, even when our childhoods are half a decade apart. To watch Europe's political climate in the sixties from the eye of a young and impressionable woman, to see her vulnerabilities and sensibility laid out in the open is as cathartic as it is timeless, and Ferrante does a wonderful job in captivating the reader in a story that almost feels like a memoir. The love between Lenù and her Lila is a love that has survived the test of time, and they will remain engraved in my heart forever.

deniz

Deepika Ramesh

I have lost track of where these books start and end. To me, the books are one LONG novel which I can't stop reading, and which will forever make me remember May 2020 as the month I spent in the interesting, hostile, difficult neighbourhood of Lila and Elena, and followed their lives with a renewed love for reading and compelling stories.

catalina

Pasé el libro anterior y como la mitad de éste enrabiada con Elena, sin embargo, llegué a simpatizar con ella y a verle similitudes conmigo misma. Yo creo que esa es la razón principal de que no me gustara la Lenú, veía muchas cosas que mí en ella (que en realidad no quería aceptar).

Y me da pena porque tuve una amistad similar como las de ellas dos, y al llegar a esa parte dónde Lenú quería volver a ver a Lila pero no lo hacía, me dio un dolorcito en el corazón porque nosotras, a diferencia de ella, cortamos por lo sano hace tiempo ya.

Como sea, Lila sigue siendo mi personaje favorito. La gente sigue siendo una mierda con ella (incluyendo a Elena) y me da rabia que la Lila siga creyendo que ella es el problema. Ósea, no la culpo de todas las cosas que hizo, si mi vida fuera una mierda yo cometería los mismos errores para salir de esa realidad aunque sea por un rato. Necesita una escena como la de "It's not your fault" en Good Will Hunting.

Me encanta que aquí se hable de los tabúes de la maternidad y la sexualidad feminina principalmente en la época (aunque ciertos discursos y palabras sexista las seguimos escuchando en pleno siglo XXI).

En fin, amo a la Lila, amo a la Mariarosa, me encanta como va evolucionando la Lenú (sé que en el próx. libro lo hará más) y todos los hombres de este libro: los Solara, Stefano, LOS Sarratore, etc. son un asco (menos Enzo).

esperanza 

Kahli Scott

I've had to take a break after each Neapolitan Novel I've read because they're so rich and heartbreaking. There's a particular part in this one that made me put the book down and stare at the wall for a good while, trying to calm myself down - I felt so personally wronged by a wrong that had befallen someone else, a fictional character. Truly, I've never come across a more confronting yet accurate portrayal of female friendship, life and identity. And what I love most about these books is that they're an example of rich immersive storytelling of a 'literary' kind. In a time when 'literary fiction' is often praised for starkness, the emotional density of these novels shines. They're vital and transformative.

Read this for 7 hours straight today, I think that sums it up. The last chapters were pure heroin. 

Klára Kováčiková 

Ferrante’s writing has me in its grip for a while now. There’s intensity in her writing that I have never encountered before. I have yet to read the last two parts of the Neapolitan quartet, and yet I am sure of what awaits me: stupefaction of the best kind.  

Vaishali Batra

Elena Ferrante really is one of the greatest writers of our time. Her writing is gripping, dynamic and absolutely riveting. Once it draws you in, it is difficult to put down, to come up for breath.

While Ferrante's talent for gripping plots driven by messy people is undeniable, the novel's strength remains the nuanced depiction of its protagonists - Lila and Lenu. As the second instalment from the Neapolitan Novels, "The Story of a New Name" picks up exactly where "My Brilliant Friend Left Off". It then continues to follow Lila and Lenu through their late teens and twenties and sees their relationship develop further.

Ferrante is unmatched in grasping the complex dynamics of female relationships perfectly. With Lila and Lenu, it is never purely love and never purely hate - it is an inevitable and inescapable draw to each other, an influence on each other that is uninterrupted even when they are physically apart. Their pull to each other is so strong, the drama of their relationship so vivid, one cannot help but be drawn into it, too.

A lot of authors would have perhaps not developed their novel beyond this sole dynamic. However, Ferrante has given so much life to both the remainder of the cast of characters and Naples that the whole work is all the more vivid for it. The novel really feels like a masterwork of the master writers of old.

Elena Ferrante really is one of the greatest writers of our time. Her writing is gripping, dynamic and absolutely riveting. Once it draws you in, it is difficult to put down, to come up for breath.

While Ferrante's talent for gripping plots driven by messy people is undeniable, the novel's strength remains the nuanced depiction of its protagonists - Lila and Lenu. As the second instalment from the Neapolitan Novels, "The Story of a New Name" picks up exactly where "My Brilliant Friend Left Off". It then continues to follow Lila and Lenu through their late teens and twenties and sees their relationship develop further.

Ferrante is unmatched in grasping the complex dynamics of female relationships perfectly. With Lila and Lenu, it is never purely love and never purely hate - it is an inevitable and inescapable draw to each other, an influence on each other that is uninterrupted even when they are physically apart. Their pull to each other is so strong, the drama of their relationship so vivid, one cannot help but be drawn into it, too.

A lot of authors would have perhaps not developed their novel beyond this sole dynamic. However, Ferrante has given so much life to both the remainder of the cast of characters and Naples that the whole work is all the more vivid for it. The novel really feels like a masterwork of the master writers of old.

i have information that could lead to the imprisonment of nino sarrotore 

ashley

A New York Times BestsellerThe Neapolitan Novels (Book 2)A modern masterpice from one of Italy's most acclaimed authors. My Brillant Briend is a rich, intense, and generous-hearted portrait of two friends, Elena and Lila. Through their lives, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country undergoing momentous change.

I wish I could give this one million stars

Celestine Taevs-Nakaya

Amy Thibodeau

I found the first book in this trilogy a bit hard to get into, despite the beautiful, tense writing. This second book completely sucked me in and I read it in a matter of days. I can't wait to read the third.

tina

how does elena ferrante manage to capture the intricacies and complexities of female friendships and relationships so so perfectly?

Izza

5 stars | 💎 such a beautiful and well-crafted story. I don't know why I waited so long to pick this up. I won't make the same mistake with the third one.

Kwan Ann Tan

how is it possible that the second book was even better than the first?!

Marisel 

Sadly, I found this 2nd installment of the Neapolitan Novels somewhat disappointing. 

The Story of a New Name reads too much like a telenovela. It focuses too keenly on the individual dramas in the lives of the characters and not enough on the social, political and psychological insights so well expressed in the first novel —though to be fair, those few that do exist are well worthy of their place; the quality of the writing is in every way inferior to that of the first novel, and the ending was thin and predictable. 

Maybe it isn’t altogether fair to compare this book to the first, but as it is a sequel, one expects some continuity in the style of the writing not just the storyline. There were several errors that weren’t caught by the editors, and one gets the impression that the translator (albeit skilled, well respected & considered an expert in her field) was bored or too busy to pay much attention to the translation of the text in its context. There are many sentences and terms that make little sense, that seem to be purely a matter of poor choice of wording or not understanding of content; it’s such a pity. 

All this having been said, I’m not about to skip any of the books; this is a good testament to My Brilliant Friend, which completely hooked me, and to my love of Italy, which made me an easy target from the start. Hopefully books 3 & 4 will upswing back towards the delicious treat of perfection that was the first novel. One can hope.

Hellboy TCR

Elena resorts to plenty of old tricks to push the story forward, but it still has a power that draws you in. Thats my initial thought. More on it later.

Mounir Bashour

About as good as the first one.
Maybe better because closer to the characters now.

Trever

The Neapolitan Novels are quite strange in a way. If you only hear the summary it sounds like they'd be a cutesy Victorian-ish story, but these books are really quite brutal in their realism. There's no sugarcoating here and not many happy endings. The writing keeps the story engaging despite depicting a certain mundanity of life, and it gets the intellectual class spot-on in how annoying those types can be. Ferrante is one of the best contemporary writers.

Emma Friedheim

I liked the first book but I LOVED this one. I still can't quite put my finger on what makes these novels so unique, but I think it has to do with the uncomfortable (and yet refreshing and addictive) honesty. Everything Lenu thinks and feels vividly reminds me of my own paranoias and sense of competition (and then, of course, deep love and loyalty) in female friendships growing up. I think I preferred the pace of this one. Excited (and nervous) to see where the story goes from here... 

[Side note: hard to decide about the rating of these. It's hard to compare with, say, Infinite Jest as far as 5 star books go, but it deserves more than a 4!)

Fraser Simons

I’ve been rationing these. Finished the first a few months back and could have easily binged them all, but prefer to keep them on hand for “the right time”. Or maybe I just know the writing is so addictive and consuming and I like to do small things like work, eat, and sleep. 

Another exquisitely rendered instalment. But this time the contrast between the first sneaks up on you. When I thought about where these characters had come from and where they ended up. It seems wild that there are still two more books. Again I wonder to what extent this is a self insert, but also don’t really want to know. Either way, this remains one of the few books I’ve read with the feeling of little happening and so much happening at once, and how when the character work is at a high enough level, it does feel like the rest follows.

The Story of a New Name

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