Elena Ferrante’s mysteries come home to narrow Naples streets where people bury their past

We visit the hilltop district whose charms and complexity inspired the author’s new novel, The Lying Life of Adults

Elena Ferrante’s new novel dominates the window display of Raffaello, a bookshop in the Naples neighbourhood of Rione Alto, and stacks of copies fill its tiny interior.

The presence of a bookshop is among the first notable distinctions between Rione Alto, the main location for La Vita Bugiarda Degli Adulti (The Lying Life of Adults), and Rione Luzzatti, the neglected, rundown area where Ferrante’s phenomenally successful quartet of books that began with My Brilliant Friend are believed to have been set.

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