Ann Goldstein renowned translator of Elena Ferrante's novels, including The Lying Life of Adults and My Brilliant Friend,  joins us for a conversation with Ferrante's publisher Michael Reynolds.

The publication of The Lying Life of Adults is among the year’s biggest literary events, and Ann Goldstein and Michael Reynolds are your perfect guides!

NY Times best-selling The Lying Life of Adults is a gripping, highly addictive, and unforgettable Neapolitan coming-of-age story. It's another masterpiece in the cannon of Elena Ferrante.

Ann Goldstein didn’t start learning Italian until the age of thirty-seven. She arranged classes with her fellow New Yorker copy department colleagues, spending a year studying grammar before reading Dante’s The Divine Comedy. Since then, as well as an illustrious career at The New Yorker (editing the likes of John Updike and Janet Malcolm) Goldstein has become one of the world’s most sought-after translators of Italian fiction, working on books by Primo Levi, Jhumpa Lahiri, and most famously, Elena Ferrante. Goldstein has been translating the works of the superstar novelist Elena Ferrante since 2004, beginning with Days of Abandonment.

Michael Reynolds is the editor-in-chief of independent publisher Europa Editions. He is the recipient of the 2016 Golden Colophon Award for Superlative Achievement & Leadership in Independent Literary Publishing, awarded by the Community of Literary and Magazine Presses, and a 2017 Epiphany Magazine Honoree for Publishing Excellence. Reynolds has worked with prizewinning and bestselling authors, including Alina Bronsky, Amelie Nothomb, Elena Ferrante, Chantel Acevedo, Domenico Starnone, Charlotte Wood, Julie Lekstrom Himes, Hiromi Kawakami, Nick Arvin, and Alexander Maksik. He has also published other translations, including three historical mysteries by Carlo Lucarelli and Viola Di Grado’s prizewinning novel, 70% Acrylic 30% Wool. Michael was born in Australia and now lives in New York.

Elena Ferrante is the author of The Days of Abandonment (Europa, 2005), which was made into a film directed by Roberto Faenza, Troubling Love (Europa, 2006), adapted by Mario Martone, and The Lost Daughter (Europa, 2008), soon to be a major motion picture directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal and starring Oscar Award-winner Olivia Colman. She is also the author of Incidental Inventions (Europa, 2019), illustrated by Andrea Ucini, Frantumaglia: A Writer’s Journey (Europa, 2016) and The Beach at Night (Europa, 2016), illustrated by Mara Cerri. The four volumes known as the “Neapolitan quartet” (My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, and The Story of the Lost Child) were published by Europa Editions in English between 2012 and 2015. My Brilliant Friend, the HBO series directed by Saverio Costanzo, premiered in 2018. Her most recent novel is The Lying Life of Adults (Europa, 2020).

Europa Editions is a small, independently owned book publisher of upmarket fiction, literary nonfiction, and high-end mysteries. In relative commercial terms, publishers like Europa inhabit a small corner of the market, but in cultural terms we remain highly relevant not only to the culture of reading but also in the broader cultural, social, and political landscape.

Elena Ferrante's 'The Lying Life of Adults': translator conversation