Ask a Bookseller: 'The Lying Life of Adults'

Jean Anne Pugh of Four Seasons Books in Shepardstown, West Virginia, just loves the title of Elena Ferrante’s novel, “The Lying Life of Adults.” Like Ferrante’s famed Neapolitan novels, this one is set in Naples and translated from Italian by Ann Goldstein.

Pugh calls the novel an excellent portrait of a teenager “in conflict with her culture and her family.” The story is set in ‘90s Naples, a city divided into a seemingly refined upper crust society and its lower quarters, where mysterious Aunt Vittoria lives.

A Netflix version of the novel, filmed in Naples, is current in production.

• Ask a Bookseller: 'Bathe the Cat'
• Ask a Bookseller: 'Dear Mothman'
• Ask a Bookseller: 'The Wild Guide to Starting School'