The Days of Abandonment - by Elena Ferrante (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A BEST BOOK OF THE CENTURY - NEW YORK TIMES

From the New York Times-bestselling author of My Brilliant Friend, this novel of a deserted wife's descent into despair--and rage--is "a masterpiece" (The Philadelphia Inquirer).

The Days of Abandonment is the gripping story of an Italian woman's experiences after being suddenly left by her husband after fifteen years of marriage. With two young children to care for, Olga finds it more and more difficult to do the things she used to: keep a spotless house, cook meals with creativity and passion, refrain from using obscenities. After running into her husband with his much-younger new lover in public, she cannot even refrain from assaulting him physically.

In a "raging, torrential voice" (The New York Times), Olga conveys her journey from denial to devastating emptiness--and when she finds herself literally trapped within the four walls of their high-rise apartment, she is forced to confront her ghosts, the potential loss of her own identity, and the possibility that life may never return to normal.

"Intelligent and darkly comic."--Publishers Weekly

"Remarkable, lucid, austerely honest."--The New Yorker

Review Quotes

Praise for The Days of Abandonment

"A masterpiece...The magic of Days of Abandonment remains the fierce intelligence of its narrator."
--The Philadelphia Inquirer

"The writer is immensely self-aware and her frankness is stunning."
--The New York Times

"Ferrante's novels are tactile and sensual, visceral and dizzying."
--The Guardian

"Nothing you read about Elena Ferrante's work prepares you for the ferocity of it."
--Amy Rowland, The New York Times

"Ferrante's voice feels necessary. She is the Italian Alice Munro."
--Mona Simpson, author of Casebook and Anywhere But Here

"Elena Ferrante: the best angry woman writer ever!"
--John Waters, director

"[Ferrante] describes the female experience so intimately and so vividly that the reader feels like she could (and should) know the writer personally."
--Kat Stoeffel, New York Magazine

"Ferrante puts most other writing at the moment in the shade. She's marvelous"
--Booker Prize-winning author of The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Richard Flanagan

About the Author

Elena Ferrante is the author of The Days of Abandonment (Europa, 2005), Troubling Love (Europa, 2006), The Lost Daughter (Europa, 2008) and the Neapolitan Quartet (Europa 2012-2015). She is also the author of a children's picture book illustrated by Mara Cerri, The Beach at Night.

Ann Goldstein is an editor at The New Yorker. Her translations for Europa Editions include novels by Amara Lakhous, Alessandro Piperno, and Elena Ferrante's bestselling My Brilliant Friend. She lives in New York.