The Lying Life of Adults is the first novel Elena Ferrante has released in five years, since the publication of The Story of the Lost Child in 2015. Originally released in 2019 in Ferrante’s native language of Italian, The Lying Life of Adults has finally been released in English this year. Ferrante, despite having published books since 1992 and garnering a rather substantial international following through her writing, has surprisingly kept her identity a secret. She is best known for her four-part book series called the Neapolitan Novels, which includes the novels, My Brilliant Friend (2012), The Story of a New Name (2013), Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (2014), and The Story of the Lost Child (2015). Due to the success of the Neapolitan Novels, her new novel, translated by Ann Goldstein, was highly anticipated. Ferrante’s new novel shows a harsh coming of age story through the loss of a girl’s innocence as a consequence of a foundation created before her that was built on lies.

        Set in the 1990s, The Lying Life of Adults centers around Giovanna, a teenage girl from Naples, Italy, who, after overhearing her father say that “she’s getting the face” (Ferrante 13) of his estranged sister Vittoria, decides that she wants to meet the ugly woman she supposedly now resembles. According to her parents, Vittoria is a bitter, rude, and petty woman, who would only want to turn Giovanna against them through the copious amount of lies she is willing to tell. However, while Vittoria consistently speaks poorly of her parents during their visits, Giovanna begins to bond with her aunt, soon realizing that Vittoria may be the most honest of them all. After learning the rocky origins of her father’s family, Giovanna begins spying on her parents to see if what Vittoria says holds any truth, leading her to discover major faults within her own family that were hidden before. Once these family secrets are brought to light, Giovanna’s world begins to fall apart right before her eyes, her trials and tribulations following her for the next few years of her life.

        The theme of dishonesty is integral in the narrative, especially in the context of being honest to not hurt others.  Namely, this is shown through Giovanna “learning to lie to [her] parents more and more,” about the growing bond between her and Vittoria where at that point “lying seemed unavoidable” (Ferrante 49), Giovanna’s father keeping his affair a secret for over fifteen years to avoid damaging either family involved, as well as both her parents’ dishonesty about the origin of her father’s familial estrangement to keep her away from Vittoria. In a rare interview with Elle Magazine, Ferrante revealed the inspiration for writing The Lying Life of Adults, explaining that “as a girl I was a liar and was often punished for my lies. At around 14, after a lot of humiliation, I decided to grow up and stop lying” (“The Elena Ferrante Interview”). What she later realized was that, “adults, so opposed to lies, lied easily to themselves and others, as if the lie were the fundamental tool that gave you consistency, meaning, allowed you to withstand the confrontation with your neighbour, to appear to your children as a model of authority” (“The Elena Ferrante Interview”). Through her own experience with lying as an adolescent came the creation of Giovanna’s story that so heavily relied on dishonesty and its consequences. Although, ironically, the character who is accused of fabricating the most lies—Vittoria—is arguably the most honest of all the characters introduced.  

        From Vittoria’s brutal honesty comes another major theme of the novel, which is the loss of innocence that goes along with coming of age. An example of this is Giovanna and her eventual inability to overlook what she once had as a child, admitting to herself that “I could no longer be innocent, behind my thoughts were other thoughts, childhood was over. I strained, and yet innocence eluded me, the tears that I felt continuously in my eyes hardly proved that I wasn’t guilty” (Ferrante 118). Vittoria is someone that Giovanna has never experienced yet in her life—someone who doesn't save her from the truth. In fact, Vittoria as a whole is representative of the harsh realities of life that Giovanna’s parents tried to shield her from prior. Throughout the novel, when Giovanna is either being compared to or is comparing herself to Vittoria, it appears that the reasoning is because she is becoming “ugly” like Vittoria due to her growing attitude and bitterness. Furthermore, this comparison also holds the deeper meaning that like Vittoria, Giovanna is someone who sees the truth and acknowledges it rather than avoiding it like those around her. While she may tell small lies to entertain, it doesn’t consume her whole life.

        When asked if writing was a form of therapy for her, Ferrante answered with “No, I’ve never considered writing to be a form of therapy. Writing for me is something entirely different: it’s twisting the knife in the wound, which can hurt a lot” (“The Elena Ferrante Interview”). This is reminiscent of Giovanna’s loss of innocence; considering what she had been through, there was always going to be that knife twisting in her wound, reminding her she couldn't go back to being the innocent girl she once was. Overall, the lesson of Giovanna’s story is that while the truth may be harsh, it is lies that create permanent damage to one’s life—especially when they are discovered. 

        Ferrante’s The Lying Life of Adults, is a gripping novel that tells the story of a girl’s transition from a child to a young adult. Filled with harsh realities and heartbreak that surround adulthood, the reader is knowingly following a narrative that favors the portrayal of disillusionment in response to growing up, but one can’t help but keep turning the page.