📚Book Discussion: Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay - Book 3🎙

📖 Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay

Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay follows Elena and Lila as they move deeper into adulthood, carrying the weight of their childhood friendship into radically different lives shaped by class, marriage, politics, and ambition. Set against the social unrest of 1960s and 70s Italy, the novel explores feminism, intellectual life, labour struggles, and the uneasy compromises people make to escape the worlds they come from. Elena pursues education, writing, and middle-class respectability, while Lila remains trapped within Naples’ brutal social and economic realities, yet neither woman fully escapes dissatisfaction or envy. With sharp emotional insight and psychological intensity, Elena Ferrante captures how friendship can be both sustaining and destructive, binding two people together even as their lives pull apart.

📚 About the series

Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels, also known as the Neapolitan Quartet, is a single 1,700 page novel in four volumes about the lives of and relationship between two girls becoming women in Naples: Lina and Elena. The four volumes (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. The New York Times has named My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante the best book of the 21st century, cementing the series' status as a modern literary masterpiece that chronicles a complex female friendship against the backdrop of post-war Naples.

As part of the group, we will read 4 books with adequate spacing between each one. This is the third meetup for the series. I'm looking forward to the discussions 😊

⚠️Something Happened?
If something unpleasant happened to you, it may happen to others. It may be small but don't hesitate to reach out to me.

🔍 How to find us?

• When I reach the venue, I'll leave a comment in the meetup where the group is seated. Normally, the booking is in my name, so you can ask the staff for the group.
• If you're unable to find us, leave a comment in the meetup page. I'll be able to guide you.

I hope to see you all soon! 😊