Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
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4.6 • 28 Ratings
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- £6.49
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- £6.49
Publisher Description
Set in the late 1960s and the 1970s, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay continues the story of the feisty and rebellious Lina and her lifelong friend, the brilliant and bookish Elena. Lina, after separating from her husband, is living with her young son in a new neighborhood of Naples and working at a local factory. Elena has left Naples, earned a degree from an elite college, and published a novel, all of which has opened the doors to a world of learned and fascinating interlocutors. The era, with its dramatic changes in sexual politics and social costumes, with its seemingly limitless number of new possibilities, is rendered with breathtaking vigor. This third Neapolitan Novel is not only a moving story of friendship but also a searing portrait of a rapidly changing world.
Since the publication of My Brilliant Friend, the first of the Neapolitan Novels, Elena Ferrante’s fame as one of today’s most compelling, insightful, and stylish authors has grown. She has gained admirers among authors, artists, and critics. But her most resounding success has undoubtedly been with readers, who have discovered in Ferrante a writer who speaks with great power and beauty of the mysteries of belonging, human relationships, love, family, and friendship.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Surpassing the rapturous storytelling of the previous titles in the Neapolitan Novels (My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name), Ferrante here reunites Elena and Lil, two childhood friends, who dissect subjects as complicated as their own relationship, including feminism and class, men and women, mothers and children, sex and violence, and origin and destiny. As the narrative unfolds in the late 1960s and early 70s, the fiery Lila stays in Naples, having escaped an abusive marriage, and lives platonically with a man from the neighborhood, along with her young, possibly illegitimate son. The feisty Elena leaves town, graduates from a university in Pisa, publishes a successful book, marries an upper-class professor, and moves to Florence, where she gives birth to two daughters. Against the backdrop of student revolution and right-wing reaction, the two women s tumultuous friendship seesaws up and down as each tries to outdo the other. You wanted to write novels, Lila tells Elena. I created a novel with real people, with real blood, in reality. Are the two women less opposites than parts of a whole? The book concludes not with a duality but with a surprising new triangle involving Nino, another homegrown intellectual, who loves both women.
Customer Reviews
Those who leave and those who stay
I watched the Italian TV series ‘My Brilliant Friend’. I was very much hooked and was disappointed when I realised I couldn’t watch the next part to the series as it hadn’t been filmed yet and was to be getting filmed in 2020. I was eager to find out what happened next and I downloaded the books.
I enjoyed reading through the books and I now can’t wait to see the films (once they are released). Great story, love the background to the story. Definitely worth a read.
Listed as book four but is book 3
This is the third book in the series. Not Book 4!