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Storia del nuovo cognome
747 pages
A feverish, brutally intimate portrait of a friendship buckling under the weight of marriage, ambition, and betrayal.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like being caught in the undertow of a volatile, lifelong obsession. It is a feverish and deeply immersive experience, driven by prose that strips away all polite artifice to expose the raw, often ugly marrow of female friendship and rivalry. The mood oscillates between the suffocating, violent claustrophobia of a working-class Naples neighborhood and the deceptive, sun-drenched freedom of a summer in Ischia. You feel the characters' simmering resentments, their desperate grabs for intellectual and bodily autonomy, and the bruising cost of their choices. It is a propulsive, unsentimental read that will completely consume anyone who craves fiercely honest, psychologically complex stories about women navigating the brutal transition from youth to adulthood.
- Mood
- claustrophobic
- volatile
- simmering
- sun-drenched
- Tone
- unsentimental
- fiercely honest
- visceral
- observant
- Pace
- propulsive
- Themes
- female rivalry and codependence · the suffocation of marriage · class mobility and education · intellectual awakening · the violence of patriarchy
- The writing
- Feverish, unadorned, and relentlessly psychological, stripping away polite facades to reveal raw, ugly truths.
- The arc
- Moves from suffocating entrapment and bitter resentment to a fragile, hard-won independence marked by profound betrayals.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave brutally honest, immersive explorations of female friendship, class struggle, and the messy realities of womanhood.
Content notes
- domestic abuse
- sexual violence
- misogyny
- infidelity
About the book
Friends Lila and Elena are now in their twenties. Marriage appears to have imprisoned Lila. Meanwhile, Elena continues her journey of self-discovery. The two young women share a complex and evolving bond that brings them close at times, and drives them apart at others. Each vacillates between hurtful disregard and profound love for the other. With this complicated and meticulously portrayed friendship at the center of their emotional lives, the two girls mature into women, paying the cruel price that this passage exacts. --back cover
Description from Open Library.
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