Paris (AFP)

The millions of readers of Elena Ferrante, the most secret of Italian novelists, will be able to find from Tuesday their favorite author with "The lying life of adults", her first novel since the end of the saga of "The Prodigious Friend ".

Also eagerly awaited by booksellers who are counting on bestsellers to relaunch their activity, stemmed by the coronavirus epidemic, the new Italian book has an exceptional circulation of 200,000 copies from Gallimard its publisher.

The novelist had not written anything since 2014 except for chronicles for the British daily newspaper The Guardian, gathered in a collection entitled "Chronicles of chance" published in 2019 by Gallimard.

The last volume of the cycle of "L'Amie prodigieuse" ("L'enfant perdue") published in Italy in 2014, was released in French in 2018.

French-speaking readers will be the first to be able to discover this new novel released in Italy in November (under the title "La vita bugiarda degli adulti") and immediately became a bestseller. English and other language versions will not be available until September.

Netflix has already announced a television series adaptation of the book.

- A new saga? -

Meanwhile, what is in the eighth novel by Elena Ferrante, translated, like her previous books, by Elsa Damien?

We follow the fate of Giovanna, the only daughter of a couple of teachers, who lived a happy childhood in a bourgeois district on the heights of Naples. The schoolgirl is adored by her parents, especially her father ... until one day she overhears a conversation in which he compares her to Vittoria, an aunt with an evil reputation.

Upset by this bringing down as devaluing as unexpected, Giovanna will seek to know more about this woman, discovering during her quest the popular neighborhood where her father lived, family secrets, boys and sexuality ...

We find in "The deceitful life of adults" (416 pages, 22 euros) themes already present in "The Prodigious Friend", the saga in four volumes which has sold nearly 15 million copies worldwide , including more than four million in French.

In this new novel, we are talking about the place of women in society, social inequalities, identity, loyalty and betrayal and, again and again, Naples.

The book, thrilling from start to finish, takes the form of a realistic novel (in its description of the lowlands of Naples), a learning story (Giovanna will have to overcome many obstacles to satisfy his quest) and the political manifesto (in the denunciation of lies, hypocrisy and the fight for emancipation).

Elena Ferrante confirms to be a wonderful storyteller. A bracelet that goes from the wrist of a female character to another, thus connecting all the women of the story, is from this point of view a real find.

The end of the novel remains open. "The next day, I left for Venice with Ida. On the train, we made a promise: we would become adults like no girl had managed to do it" ...

Is this the promise of a new saga? Its Italian publisher, edizioni e / o, denies it, but we know that in literature you have to swear nothing.

© 2020 AFP