The Story of a New Name (Neapolitan Novels #2)

by Elena Ferrante

If nothing could save us, not money, not a male body, and not even studying, we might as well destroy everything immediately.

Antonio, whom I had always wanted to leave, and who in the end had left me, and already I missed him;

And then there was the lazy sea, the leaden sun that bore down on the gulf and the city, stray fantasies, desires, the ever-present wish to undo the order of the lines—and, with it, every order that required an effort, a wait for fulfillment yet to come—and yield, instead, to what was within reach, immediately gained, the crude life of the creatures of the sky, the earth, and the sea.

“And those on top will be willing to go down? And those on the bottom will give up on going any higher?”