{"product_id":"lies-and-sorcery-9780241711200","title":"Lies and Sorcery","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe spellbinding debut novel that launched the career of one of the greatest Italian writers of the twentieth century  Elisa - orphaned as a child, raised by a 'fallen woman', fed by fairy tales - has lived in an outlandish imaginary world for years. When her guardian dies, she feels compelled to confront her family's tortured and dramatic past, weaving the tale of her mother and grandmother through a history of intrigue, treachery, deception and desire. But as her saga of three generations of Sicilian women proceeds, it becomes something else entirely, taking in a whole legacy of oppression and injustice. By turns flamboyant and intense, raging and funny, Lies and Sorcery is a celebration of the female imagination, and the power of storytelling itself.  First published in 1948, Elsa Morante's debut novel won the Viareggio Prize and earned her the lasting admiration of generations of writers from Italo Calvino and Natalia Ginzburg to Elena Ferrante.  Translated by Jenny McPhee\u003ch4\u003eDetails\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cp\u003eISBN13: 9780241711200\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFormat: Paperback \/ softback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNumber of Pages: 800\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEdition: \u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublication Date: 28 Jul 2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublisher: \u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublication City, Country: London, United Kingdom\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDimensions (cm): 19.8(H)x12.8(L)x3.8(W)544\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWeight (gm): 544\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch4\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h4\u003eElsa Morante (Author)  Elsa Morante was an Italian novelist, poet, and translator. She was born in 1912 in Rome and wrote her debut novel, Lies and Sorcery, while hiding in the countryside during the German occupation of Italy in the Second World War. Alongside Lies and Sorcery, which won the Viareggio Prize, Morante's novels include Arturo's Island, which was awarded the Strega Prize, and History: A Novel which became a national bestseller in Italy on publication. She died in 1985.  Jenny McPhee (Translator)  Jenny McPhee is a translator and the author of the novels The Center of Things, No Ordinary Matter, and A Man of No Moon. She is the director of the Center for Applied Liberal Arts at New York University and lives in New York.\u003ch4\u003eReviews\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cb\u003eThrillingly addictive, magnificent, luxurious \u003c\/b\u003e. . . as \u003cb\u003estaggering\u003c\/b\u003e and \u003cb\u003eabsorbing \u003c\/b\u003eas a great 19th-century novel -- Catherine Taylor * Telegraph *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSpellbinding, exquisite\u003c\/b\u003e . . . Morante creates something truly modern: a novel about the power of stories and storytelling, both seductive and corrupting . . . every bit as \u003cb\u003eexhilarating \u003c\/b\u003eto read now as it must have been radical to encounter nearly 80 years ago -- Lucy Scholes * Financial Times *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA triumph\u003c\/b\u003e: a fairy tale of \u003cb\u003eepic proportions \u003c\/b\u003eand a rightly rediscovered 20th-century classic -- Francesca Peacock * Spectator *\u003cbr\u003eWhat a \u003cb\u003ethrill \u003c\/b\u003ethat this \u003cb\u003ewild, evocative, compelling\u003c\/b\u003e novel is at long last fully available in English. Its vivid depictions of how class both imprisons and distorts a person’s sense of self is \u003cb\u003epowerful \u003c\/b\u003e. . . \u003ci\u003eLies and Sorcery\u003c\/i\u003e is a fairy tale with no need for fairies or magic * New Statesman *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eI absolutely love this book. \u003c\/b\u003eEvery page is \u003cb\u003efilled with life\u003c\/b\u003e, and a life, notwithstanding its pain and longing, that reassures, because it’s done with such \u003cb\u003eattentiveness, intelligence and care\u003c\/b\u003e, and an ability to perceive and receive so much, and then with seeming effortlessness is reproduced on the page. This is why \u003cb\u003eMorante is one of the most talented writers of the 20th century\u003c\/b\u003e -- Hisham Matar, author of \u003ci\u003e The Return \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI loved it and it had been a long time since I had read anything that gave me such \u003cb\u003elife and joy... \u003c\/b\u003eIt was an \u003cb\u003eextraordinary\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eadventure\u003c\/b\u003e for me to discover, among those chapter titles that felt so nineteenth-century, that the novel was actually describing our own time and place, our own daily existence with \u003cb\u003elacerating\u003c\/b\u003e and \u003cb\u003epainful\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eintensity\u003c\/b\u003e -- Natalia Ginzburg\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e[In \u003ci\u003eLies and Sorcery\u003c\/i\u003e] I discovered that an entirely female story—entirely women’s desires and ideas and feelings—could be compelling and, at the same time, have great literary value\u003c\/b\u003e -- Elena Ferrante\u003cbr\u003eEach plot development is surrounded by acres of commentary whose \u003cb\u003erichness and intensity\u003c\/b\u003e — \u003cb\u003edeep, dense, psychologically penetrating\u003c\/b\u003e — provides the story with \u003cb\u003etransformative values\u003c\/b\u003e, converts melodrama into metaphor * The New York Times *\u003cbr\u003e[\u003ci\u003eLies and Sorcery\u003c\/i\u003e] is \u003cb\u003ea work of wild abundance and inexhaustible psychological depth\u003c\/b\u003e....[it] evokes the passage from a traditional society steeped in the values of collectiveness and belonging to one obsessed with power, with the idea that an individual need only impose their will to have what they want....Elsa Morante’s is, undeniably, a grim vision of the world; yet to read \u003ci\u003eLies and Sorcery\u003c\/i\u003e in this \u003cb\u003eheroic new translation\u003c\/b\u003e by Jenny McPhee, always admirably attentive to the original’s delicate balance between archaism and fluency, is \u003cb\u003eexhilarating\u003c\/b\u003e throughout -- Tim Parks * TLS *\u003cbr\u003eAn \u003cb\u003eelectrifying\u003c\/b\u003e new translation ...a melodramatic saga of social climbing and doomed romance . . . despite its nineteenth-century veneer, \u003ci\u003eLies and Sorcery\u003c\/i\u003e could have only been written in the twentieth century -- Jess Bergman * New Yorker *","brand":"Elsa Morante","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49041662738649,"sku":"9780241711200","price":28.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0502\/9530\/8441\/files\/9780241711200.jpg?v=1785937189","url":"https:\/\/www.arielbooks.com.au\/products\/lies-and-sorcery-9780241711200","provider":"Ariel","version":"1.0","type":"link"}