Arcadia Public Library

Since the publication of My Brilliant Friend, the first of the Neapolitan novels, Elena Ferrante's fame as one of our most compelling, insightful, and stylish contemporary authors has grown enormously. She has gained admirers among authors--Jhumpa Lahiri, Elizabeth Strout, Claire Messud, to name a few--and critics--James Wood, John Freeman, Eugenia Williamson, for example. But her most resounding success has undoubtedly been with readers, who have...

"Giovanna's pretty face is changing, turning ugly, at least so her father thinks. Giovanna, he says, looks more like her Aunt Vittoria every day. But can it be true? Is she really changing? Is she turning into her Aunt Vittoria, a woman she hardly knows but whom her mother and father clearly despise? Surely there is a mirror somewhere in which she can see herself as she truly is. Giovanna is searching for her reflection in two kindred cities that...

Enthralling their failing industrial town on the coast of Italy during a summer when they discover their budding sexuality, adolescents Anna and Francesca are separated by a test of their friendship and eventually discover that they must reconnect to escape small-town destinies.

Bravo leads the high life in Milan. When a woman enters his life, what begins as a clandestine romance quickly becomes a nightmare that will transform Bravo into a wanted man.

Here is the dazzling saga of two women, the brilliant, bookish Elena and the fiery uncontainable Lila. In this book, both are adults; life's great discoveries have been made, its vagaries and losses have been suffered. Through it all, the women's friendship, examined in its every detail over the course of four books, remains the gravitational center of their lives. Both women once fought to escape the neighborhood in which they grew up -- a prison...

Inspector Bordelli investigates a series of murders in 1964 Florence where the victims have been strangled and bitten on the stomach.

Discovering the murdered body of a young woman, Sicilian detective Salvo Montalbano finds suspects in the victim's aging husband, a famous doctor, a missing admirer, an antiques dealer, a close friend, and a reclusive violinist.

"Based on true events, a heartbreaking story of love, family, hope, and survival set in post-World War II Italy-written with the heart of Orphan Train and Before We Were Yours-about poor children from the south sent to live with families in the north to survive deprivation and the harsh winters. Though Mussolini and the fascists have been defeated, the war has devastated Italy, especially the south. Seven-year-old Amerigo lives with his mother Antonietta...