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"Astonishing for the quality of the writing . . . the complexity of the invented world, the wide- ranging view of the human condition." - Elena FerranteElsa Morantes novels were once considered the greatest of Italys postwar generation. Here, Ann Goldsteins "deft translation" (Madeline Schwartz, New York Review of Books) of Arturos Island heralds a "second life" for the beloved author, finally garnering Morante "the new readers she deserves" (Lily Tuck, Wall Street Journal) . Imbued with a spectral grace, the novel follows the adolescent Arturo through his days on the isolated Neapolitan island of Procida, where - his mother long deceased, his father often absent, and a dog as his sole companion - he roams the countryside or reads in his familys lonely, dilapidated mansion. This quiet, meandering boyhood existence is existentially upended when his father brings home a beautiful sixteen- year- old bride, Nunziatella. A novel of thwarted desires, written with "the power of malediction" (Dwight Garner, New York Times) , Arturos Island reemerges to take its rightful place in the world literary canon.