Elena ferrante book club discussion

My brilliant friend by elena ferrante reading guidebook. The lying life of adults by elena ferrante is this months ballerina book club pick. Through weekly meetings, we shall be reading and discussing selections from one of elena ferrante s books in english, although those who have reading knowledge of the italian language. General book club questions for study and discussion. With this stylishly plotted novel, the first in a series dubbed the neapolitan novels, elena ferrante proves herself to be one of italys greatest storytellers. Content includes books from bestselling, midlist and debut authors. And now, in the era of donald trump, its important to consider whether or not the books you read are working to dismantle structures of inequalit. My brilliant friend neopolitan novels 1 elena ferrante, 2012 u. Leda, a middleaged divorce, is alone for the first time in years when her daughters leave home to live with their father. Ferrante uses the girls early child play to emulate the callous undertones of the town. Elena describes it as a continuous game of exchanges and reversals that, now happily, now painfully, made us indispensable to each other. Elena ferrante s gutsy and compulsively readable new novel, the first of a quartet, is a terrific entry point for americans unfamiliar with the famously reclusive writer, whose goforbroke tales of womens shadow selvesthose ambivalent mothers and seething divorcees too complex or unseemly for polite society and most literary. To what extentif anyhas elenas success been at the expense of lilas.

Of course ferrante fans from all over new york city would be there for the thalias book club discussion of. Elena ferrante s neapolitan novels audible audiobook original recording elena ferrante author, john waters narrator, amy ryan narrator, zoe kazan narrator, sonali deraniyagala narrator, elizabeth strout narrator, judith thurman narrator, parul sehgal narrator, symphony space, inc. The book opens, present day, as elena, a woman in her sixties, gets a desperate call from lilas son rino. Sep 30, 2015 i discovered elena ferrante s work through the internet, specifically twitter. Topics about this book topics that mention this book. We are honored to be joined by ann goldstein, ferrante s american translator, and michael reynolds, editorinchief of europa editions. The thirteenth tale by diane setterfield is a rich story about secrets, ghosts, winter, books and family. Through the lives of these two women, ferrante tells the story of a. As a member or leader of a book club, you are likely to be reading books on a wide variety o. Troubling love elena ferrante book discussion youtube. Ferrantes earlier series, the neapolitan novels, about two girls from naples growing up in poverty, made ferrante a household name. A site dedicated to book lovers providing a forum to discover and share commentary about the books and authors they enjoy. My brilliant friend by elena ferrante book club discussion. The days of abandonment by elena ferrante reading guide.

Ferrante s inimitable style lends itself perfectly to a meticulous portrait of these two. The diane rehm book club returns in november with a discussion of the lying life of adults by italian author elena ferrante. Discussion questions for the lying life of adults by elena ferrante. Her nonfiction book fragments 2003 discussion her experiences as a writer. Lenu and lila from the neapolitan quartet also try to tear the neighborhood out of themselves, but while they have to laboriously fabricate the tools to help them break free of real and figurative poverty, giovanna the protagonist of the lying life of adults finds those tools at home, ready to be used. There are rumours that elena ferrante is a pen name, perhaps for male author domenico starnone. Elena ferrante discusses her new novel, returning to naples, and reexamines the neapolitan novels in a series of questions submitted from around the. Aug 28, 2020 originally conceived as one book, until ferrante realised the story was too expansive for a single volume, the neapolitan novels follow two friends, elena and lila, from their childhood in an. Roxana robinson, the new york times in the third book in the neapolitan quartet, elena and. My brilliant friend by elena ferrante reading guidebook club. The lying life of adults discussion questions elena. In relation to the previous question, what is the influence, whether genetic or social, of parents on their children. The lying life of adults elena ferrante, 2019 2020, u.

How to find your local book club in the uk, because sometimes you need to discuss that ending. Neapolitan novels series elena ferrante collection 4 books. Why do elena ferrantes brilliant, bestselling books have such cheesy covers. Sep 25, 2012 a site dedicated to book lovers providing a forum to discover and share commentary about the books and authors they enjoy. As with the hunger games series, after reading the first book, i skipped to the last, interested more in how the characters lives were resolved than how they got there. Nov 07, 2016 the ferrante night fever gathering was the first time i had ever attended an book club style discussion. In the past, weve done family reunion book clubs and if we did another one, this would be in my top three book club suggestions for sure. Elena ferrante is the author of the days of abandonment europa, 2005. The audio book club makes a brilliant friend slatecritics debate the first of elena ferrantes neapolitan novels. Use these book club discussion questions on the thirteenth tale to delve into diane setterfields magical world. The description of the event, book discussion june. Book club notes for the book everyones talking about. Alice sebold, author of the lovely bones from the author of the days of abandonment, the lost daughter is elena ferrante s most compelling and perceptive meditation on womanhood and motherhood yet. The lying life of adults ferrante summary guide book club.

Ferrante dissects the personal microcosm so well, and with awesome lucidity and precision shows us the meanderings of a womans mind, the suffering that accompanies being abandoned, and the awful rumbling of time passing. Start a book club discussion and challenge your group to deepen their analysis of the reading material with this set of sample book club questions. Success of neapolitan novels stranger than fiction the. An american and an italian discuss elena ferrantes my brilliant. Leda, a middleaged divorce, is alone for the first time in years when her daughters leave home to live with. Ferrante s books, originally published in italian, have been translated into many languages. Elena ferrante s neapolitan novels as its meant to be heard, narrated by john waters, amy ryan, zoe kazan, sonali deraniyagala, elizabeth strout, judith thurman, parul sehgal. Ferrante fever, named after the 2017 documentary by giacomo durzi, is a reading group dedicated to elena ferrante, the pseudonymous bestselling italian author. Ferrante night fever at i am books literacy changes everything. Apr 10, 2016 elena ferrante s series traces the lifelong friendship of two impoverished italian girls. The lost daughter by elena ferrante reading guidebook. Oct 30, 20 i am barreling through ferrante books and loving them. Openended questions help ignite discussions involving the whole group. To ask other readers questions about the story of the lost child, please sign up.

Elena ferrante is the penname of an italian novelist whose true identity is not publicly known. In other words, when, in my books, italian succumbs and takes on. Elena ferrante returns with the lying life of adults the. Those who leave and those who stay by elena ferrante. The story, translated once again by the nimble and attentive goldstein, begins in the early 1990s. Aug 25, 2020 elena ferrante s new novel is a suspenseful story about the sins of parents. Diane rehm book club the lying life of adults wamu. The lying life of adults by elena ferrante, is available only to members. Its the furthest thing from the froth of chicklit, but you wouldnt know it from the cover. Elena ferrante is the name used by the author of many novels, including the fourvolume work titled the neapolitan novels.

The lying life of adults book club epiphany magazine. Est for a conversation about the lying life of adults by italian author elena ferrante. My reading and writing life is something very personal. Elena ferrante is the author of the days of abandonment europa, 2005, which was made into a film directed by roberto faenza, troubling love europa, 2006, adapted by mario martone, and the lost daughter europa, 2008, soon to be a film directed by maggie gyllenhaal. This is ferrantes newest work, which returns the reader to naples. Some of these are the best book club books from my own book clubs over the years and others are ones i wish my book club had read. It can be assumed that elena s voice is behind the title of the. Identity in a january 21, 20, article in the new yorker, james woods wrote that ferrante has said, books, once they are written, have no need of their authors. This book was one of our most anticipated titles of september.

By david haglund, parul sehgal, and katy waldman to listen to the audio book club. The first book in a planned autobiographical trilogy, this volume. Here are some discussion questions to ponder while you. Elena ferrante s neapolitan novels as its meant to be heard, narrated by john waters, amy ryan, zoe kazan, sonali deraniyagala, elizabeth. With the endless supply of literature both online and in shops, it comes as no surprise that finding the perfect book can be a big challenge and thats one of the reasons why book clubs are so great. Those who leave and those who stay neapolitan novels by. She is best known for her translations of elena ferrante s neapolitan quartet. How would the book be different if told from the point of view of lila or another character.

This month, the babbel book club has been discussing my brilliant friend by elena ferrante. The lying life of adults by written by elena ferrante. Find out when we discuss elena ferrante and her work, with the focus on the first of the neapolitan novels, my brilliant friend, for only our. Ferrante is the author of a half dozen novels, the most well. In book 3, elena and lila are now in their 20s and 30s and still living parallel and occasionally intersecting lives with mariage, lovers, kids, and lots of selfquestioning. I was asked to speak at jillians book club, and of course i said yes. Book club discussions are great conversations based on a common book that everyone has read. Ann goldstein is an american editor and translator from the italian language.

Ferrante and her translator, ann goldstein, revealed a world of extreme interiority that was richly. Think of us as an online version of your local book group discussing one book a month with fellow times readers and our books desk. My brilliant friend is the first of the four neapolitan novels written by elena ferrante, an italian author who has always written under a pseudonym. She has days as frazzled as my daughters, riding range over her small crazy boys. Oct 19, 2011 my brilliant friend by elena ferrante is the first of four novels set in naples charting the lives of elena greco and her best friend lila curello. She started a ferrante book club, which meets every other saturday at i am books in the north. Soon to be an hbo series, book one in the new york times bestselling neapolitan quartet about two friends growing up in postwar italy is a rich, intense, and generoushearted family epic by italys most beloved and acclaimed writer, elena ferrante, one of the great novelists of our time. This tour of elena ferrante s naples is a roving book club with lots of indepth conversation about the extraordinary neapolitan novels in the places where the stories are set. These are the core obsessions that drive our newsroomdefining topics of seismic importance to the global economy. The elena ferrante interview on the lying life of adults elle. Though heralded as the most important italian novelist of her generation, she has kept her identity secret since the publication of her first novel in 1992.

Aug 31, 2020 elena ferrante returns with the lying life of adults, and fans of the neapolitan novels will be thrilled by marion winik august 31, 2020 at 12. When breath becomes air by paul kalanithi this memoir published after the authors early death from lung cancer will basically rip your heart out, but also make you so glad to be alive. Find resources for your book club, whether it meets in your living room or across cyberspace. The book introduces the reader to elena and lila, two young girls living in a poor and vibrant neighbourhood on the outskirts of naples. In an interview published in the us by elle magazine, elena ferrante wrote. Jul 08, 2017 after resisting elena ferrante s neapolitan books for so long, i finally read the first my brilliant friend for an upcoming book club discussion. The elena ferrante interview on the lying life of adults. Neapolitan novels elena ferrante book club notes 6. My brilliant friend by elena ferrante europa editions. Nov 01, 2018 this november, babbel book club is reading my brilliant friend, the first book in literary sensation elena ferrante s neapolitan novels.

Sep 10, 2020 in this months ballerina book club pick, the lying life of adults by elena ferrante, we are encountered with an assortment of obfuscations, deceits and tweaks in meaning, starting with our introduction to our bildungsromans narrator, giovanna. For example, nino is sickened by his fathers betrayal of his mother mbf 221, and when elena first sees donato sarratore on ischia she cant see any. Early in the story of a new name, we learn that elena threw lilas notebooks into the river, destroying all of elenas writing, which allowed her to elevate her own writing. Epiphany presents a discussion and book club about elena ferrante s the lying life of adults, featuring ann goldstein, ferrante s american translator, and michael reynolds of europa editions, moderated by novelist rachel lyon. Sep 01, 2020 the lying life of adults, ferrante s first novel in five years, puts such worries to rest. Elena ferrante s neapolitan series sparked readers around the world to immerse themselves in the intricate and intimate world of a neighborhood in naplesthe families, the friends, the lovers, the enemies, and the drama of life, loss, loyalty, and love. Join diane rehm and a panel of guests on wednesday, november 18, at 1.

In this months ballerina book club pick, the lying life of adults by elena ferrante, we are encountered with an assortment of obfuscations, deceits and tweaks in meaning, starting with our introduction to our bildungsromans narrator, giovanna. Delve deeper into the books making the charts, and get tips for keeping your reading group engaged. Sep 25, 2012 through the lives of elena and lila, ferrante gives her readers the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country undergoing momentous change. I got a bit confused towards the end of this book regarding elena s story called the friendship. Elena ferrante returns with the lying life of adults. My brilliant friend by elena ferrante reading cove book. To what extentif anyhas elena s success been at the expense of lilas. One way to include all members is to write questions on an index card for e. Sep 20, 2015 the story of the lost child is the final quarter in a whole that is about much more than the demonic friendship and rivalry between its narrator, lenu, and lila, whom we have followed from. Soon to be an hbo series, book three in the new york times bestselling neapolitan quartet about two friends in postwar italy is a rich, intense, and generoushearted epic by one of todays most beloved and acclaimed writers, elena ferrante, one of the great novelists of our time. Even before lila and stefano separate, nunzia expresses regret that lila married so young, when in fact, nunzia, fernando, and rino. Her four book series of neapolitan novels are her most widely known works time magazine called ferrante one of the 100 most influential people in 2016. For the november meeting of the diane rehm book club, diane and guests discuss elena ferrante s the lying life of adults.