Lies and Sorcery

Elsa Morante is one of the titansof twentieth-century literatureNatalia Ginzburg said she was the writer of her own generation that she most admiredand yet her work remains little known in the United States. Written during World War II, Morantes celebrated first novel, Lies and Sorcery, is in the grand tradition of Stendhal, Tolstoy, and Proust, spanning the lives of three generations of wildly eccentric women.The story is set in Sicily and told by Elisa, orphaned young and raised by a fallen woman. For years Elisa has lived in an imaginary world of her own; now, however, her guardian has died, and the young woman feels that she must abandon her fantasy life to confront the truth of her familys tortured and dramatic history. Elisa is a seductive, if less than reliable,spinner of stories, and the reader is drawn into atale of secrets, intrigue, and treachery, which, as it proceeds, is increasingly revealed to...