Elena Ferrante on Bold Adventures, Both Near and Far

September 2, 2020

At the Guardian, Elena Ferrante gave a rare interview to booksellers and translators and discussed her newest book, The Lying Life of Adults, as well as her acclaimed Neopolitan Novels. “Going away is important but not decisive,” she says. “Lenù goes away, Lila never abandons Naples, but they both develop, their lives are full of events. As I’ve said, I feel close to Elena’s choices. We don’t have to fear change, what is other shouldn’t frighten us. But staying doesn’t seem wrong to me; what’s essential is that our ‘I’ not be impoverished if we should confine ourselves to a space forever. I like people who are able to have bold adventures just going from one end to the other of the street where they were born. I imagined Lila like that.”

is a writer and illustrator. She is the author of two illustrated books, Last Night's Reading (Penguin Books, 2015) and Sanpaku (Archaia 2018).