The Story of a New Name (All reviews)

Dec 9 2015
The Best Book I Read This Year
— The Atlantic
Nov 3 2015
The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante Translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein
— James Reads Books
Sep 28 2015
"It’s raw and brilliant, with a light that shines unblinking on its characters.”
— The Phraser
Sep 20 2015
"Are Ferrante’s books autobiographical, as everyone speculates? Yes, perhaps: we all have difficult friendships; but these also seem to be about different aspects of the same person."
— Mirabile Dictu
Sep 19 2015
"The prose isn't pretty or elegant: the English translation (by Ann Goldstein) is terrifically simple and understated . . . But it's the power of the emotions bleeding through the words that grips you."
— The Idle Woman
Sep 13 2015
"Ferrante is able to evoke a world that [. . .] is both ‘fresh’ and ‘alive’, full of mystery and beauty, and one that deserves to be read and re-read."
— Bookish Ramblings
Sep 7 2015
"The only book ever to make me shout out loud at a revelation in the story."
— The Guardian
Aug 7 2015
“It's difficult for me to exaggerate how moving, how beautiful and how thought-provoking these novels are, how piercing Ferrante's insight is.
— Material Witness
Aug 6 2015
Philippa Gregory in The Daily Mail: Currently reading THE STORY OF A NEW NAME
— The Daily Mail
Aug 1 2015
15 Books You Should Read Before the End of Summer
— Fader
Jul 31 2015
The Story of a New Name: Katherine, July 31
— Post45
Jul 30 2015
The Story of A New Name: Merve, July 30: "If My Brilliant Friend gave us a community of two, Lila and Lenù, brought together by a shared commitment to literary education, in The Story of a New Name that community has broadened."
— Post45
Jul 17 2015
THE STORY OF A NEW NAME included in the list of “Summer Reading List-Books for the Beach”
— Material Witness
Jun 29 2015
THE STORY OF A NEW NAME is number 7 on the list of top-selling books at Battenkill Books, Cambridge during the week of June 28th
Jun 16 2015
THE STORY OF A NEW NAME selected by the International Women’s Group Book Club title for the month of 6/15.
— International Women’s Group Book Club
Jun 4 2015
"The novel is marked by deft narrative pacing, a controlled balance of lyricism, biting sarcasm, and devastating cliffhangers throughout."
— Harvard Review Online
Jun 4 2015
THE STORY OF A NEW NAME is no.5 on Turnaround Publisher Services May bestseller list.
— Turnaround Publisher Services
May 25 2015
"Ferrante’s writing is reminiscent of the great Russian novelists."
— Cannoball Read 7
May 24 2015
"As with My Brilliant Friend, this second novel ends on something of a cliffhanger"
— David's Book World
May 17 2015
"It feels real, not simply another mass-produced novel using the same old techniques to achieve predictable effects."
— Merle Bookwrites
May 10 2015
"Questions of education and the aspirations of leaving behind the place you come from, are juxtaposed with the fates of those who never stray far beyond the street they were born."
— Heavenali
Nov 25 2014
Nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2015
Aug 14 2014
Rain Taxi: "A whirlwind account of friendship."
Aug 7 2014
JacquiWine's Journal: "[I'm] desperate to read the next installment in this utterly compelling story"
Jun 12 2014
The Guardian: "Ferrante is a master of the unsayable"
May 19 2014
Lizzy's Literary Life: "So much life, passion and drama in the lives of these two women"
May 1 2014
Historical Novel Society: "Depicts a complicated friendship between two women amid the ins and outs of everyday life."
Apr 16 2014
The Story of a New Name Is a Finalist for the 2014 Best Translated Book Award
Apr 15 2014
Los Angeles Times: "Best Translated Book Award Finalists Announced"
Mar 27 2014
Thre Percent: "[Ferrante's] brilliance isn’t limited to her mechanics, her finesse or her creativity as a writer, but it’s her willingness to continually address the psychological machinations of women who have very unfeminine feelings."
Mar 20 2014
Goop Spring Break Reading: "Now two books into her trilogy, little-known Italian author Elena Ferrante tackles girlhood and friendship with amazing force."
Feb 4 2014
Bookforum: "Elena Ferrante . . . captures the violence, vulnerability, defensiveness, and seductions of [Naples] with skin-prickling candor."
Jan 8 2014
Ralphmag: "I kept being drawn in to this, to the point that I was neglecting my studies, my friends, my husband."
Jan 7 2014
The West Australian: "Ferrante captures female rage that liquefies any remains of the veneer of civility"
Jan 3 2014
The New York Times Book Review Podcast: "Everybody is talking about these Elena Ferrante Novels!"
Dec 31 2013
Tony's Reading List: Chooses The Story of a New Name as one of 2013's Books of the Year
Dec 20 2013
San Francisco Chronicle: Chooses The Story of a New Name as one of the Best 100 Books of 2013
Dec 20 2013
The New Yorker Blog: James Wood chooses The Neapolitan Novels as his Favorite Books of 2013
Dec 19 2013
The Millions: Ann Hood chooses The Neapolitan Novels as her greatest reading pleasures of 2013
Dec 15 2013
San Francisco Chronicle: "The elusive yet volcanic Italian author Elena Ferrante has become a kind of insiders' icon on both sides of the Atlantic."
Dec 13 2013
The San Francisco Chronicle: "The through-line in all of Ferrante's investigations, for me, is nothing less than one long, mind-and-heart-shredding howl for the history of women (not only Neapolitan women), and its implicit j'accuse."
Dec 13 2013
The Millions: Elizabeth Strout says that reading Ferrante "reminded me of that child-like excitement when you can’t look up from the page, when your eyes seem to be popping from your head, when you think: I didn’t know books could do this!"
Dec 2 2013
Newpages.com: "so much more than just a coming-of-age story; it is an epic that creates with intimate, small strokes a broad panorama of social displacement."
Nov 26 2013
The Times Literary Supplement: "clear, honest, and [in which] the facts – the facts of ordinary life – are extraordinarily gripping when read"
Nov 18 2013
The New Yorker: "artfully written and absorbing"
Nov 16 2013
Sydney Morning Herald: "they move far from contrivance, logic or respectability to ask uncomfortable questions about how we live, how we love, how we singe an existence in a deeply flawed world that expects pretty acquiescence from its women."
Nov 4 2013
NPR Fresh Air: "one of modern fiction's richest portraits of a friendship."
Oct 30 2013
Three Guys One Book: "You are not to turn away from The Story of A New Name if you haven't read the first novel . . . Eventually, you'll go back out of sheer absorption . . . and read My Brilliant Friend anyway."
Oct 23 2013
Bibliophile by the Sea: "[Ferrante] knows how to write about women and their life struggles."
Oct 5 2013
The Economist: "Elena Ferrante may be the best contemporary novelist you have never heard of."
Sep 29 2013
The New York Times Book Review: "Ferrante's gift for recreating real life stems as much from the quiet, unhurried rhythm of her writing as from the people and events shes describes.:
Sep 15 2013
Booklist: "Ferrante's writing in captivating and insightful."
Aug 27 2013
Los Angeles Review of Books: "An engrossing, wildly original contemporary epic about the demonic power of human (and particularly female) creativity checked by the forces of history and society."
Aug 26 2013
Publisher's Weekly: "The women's fraught relationship and shifting fortunes are the life forces of this poignant book."
Jul 17 2013
Text Publishing: "[The Story of a New Name] is an exhilirating reading experience."
Jul 16 2013
Kirkus Reviews: "Admirers of Ferrante's work will eagerly await the third volume."
Jan 21 2013
The New Yorker: "Ferrante's own writing has no limits, is willing to take every thought forward to its most radical conclusion and backwards to its most radical birthing."