The Story of a New Name

The Story of a New Name – Elena Ferrante

At just sixteen, Lila Cerullo has married Stefano Carracci, a prosperous grocer, in a lavish wedding that seems to promise her escape from poverty. But on her wedding day, she discovers a betrayal that poisons the marriage from the start. Meanwhile, her childhood friend Elena Greco continues her studies, uncertain of where her education will lead and of her place in the world.

The Story of a New Name, the second book in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels, follows the two friends through their late teens and early twenties in the late 1950s and 1960s. Lila, trapped in a violent and unhappy marriage, struggles against the expectations placed upon her, while her brilliance and restlessness push her to defy the rules of the neighborhood. During a summer on the island of Ischia, an event takes place that changes both friends’ lives and deeply tests their bond.

Elena, determined to make something of herself, wins a place at a prestigious university in Pisa, where she discovers a new world of ideas, privilege and ambition, but also feels like an outsider. Her success brings new opportunities, yet she remains haunted by her friendship with Lila and by the neighborhood she left behind.

Ferrante explores love, jealousy, ambition, class, education and the limits imposed on women, with extraordinary emotional intensity and honesty.

Absorbing and powerful, The Story of a New Name continues one of the most acclaimed literary series of recent decades. It is best read after My Brilliant Friend. It contains violence, sexual content and mature themes.