Elena Ferrante Names her 40 Favourite Books by Female Authors

This is one of the 743 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

The Guardian, 40 Books

Elena Ferrante, the acclaimed Italian author known for My Brilliant Friend and the Neapolitan novels, has curated a list of her 40 favorite books written by female authors from around the world. This list, which spans diverse cultures and time periods, highlights stories that focus on women's experiences, particularly in the 20th century. Ferrante’s selections include a mix of well-known and lesser-known works, with authors ranging from Toni Morrison and Zadie Smith to Japanese author Mieko Kawakami and Italian novelist Natalia Ginzburg.

This list was originally published in 2020 and was added to this site almost 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
441 Americanah Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2013 Nigerian English
1260 The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood 2000 Canadian English
14901 The Enlightenment Of The Greengage Tree Shokoofeh Azar 2017 Iranian Persian
914 Malina Ingeborg Bachmann 1971 Austrian German
2821 A Manual For Cleaning Women Lucia Berlin 2015 American English
1099 Outline Rachel Cusk 2014 British English
369 The Year of Magical Thinking Joan Didion 2005 American English
17008 A Girl Returned Donatella Di Pietrantonio 2017 Italian Italian
14165 Disoriental Négar Djavadi 2016 French French
296 The Lover Marguerite Duras 1984 French French
597 The Years Annie Ernaux 2008 French French
524 Family Sayings Natalia Ginzburg 1963 Italian Italian
2602 The Conservationist Nadine Gordimer 1974 South African English
2800 Fates and Furies Lauren Groff 2015 American English
17008 Motherhood Sheila Heti 2018 Canadian English
788 The Piano Teacher Elfriede Jelinek 1983 Austrian German
6745 Breasts And Eggs Mieko Kawakami 2008 Japanese Japanese
1771 Interpreter of Maladies Jhumpa Lahiri 1999 American English
10711 The Fifth Child Doris May Lessing 1988 British English
532 The Passion According to G.H. Clarice Lispector 1964 Brazilian Portuguese
2703 Lost Children Archive Valeria Luiselli 2019 Mexican English
1530 Arturo's Island Elsa Morante 1957 Italian Italian
49 Beloved Toni Morrison 1987 American English
14901 Dear Life Alice Munro 2012 Canadian English
1384 The Bell Iris Murdoch 1958 British English
17008 Accabadora Michela Murgia 2009 Italian Italian
14775 Le Bal Irène Némirovsky 1930 French French
746 Blonde Joyce Carol Oates 2000 American English
17008 The Love Object Edna O'Brien 2013 Irish English
207 A Good Man Is Hard to Find Flannery O'Connor 1953 American English
15786 Evening Descends Upon The Hills Anna Maria Ortese 1961 Italian Italian
475 Gilead Marilynne Robinson 2004 American English
1209 Normal People Sally Rooney 2018 Irish English
358 The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy 1997 Indian English
221 White Teeth Zadie Smith 2000 British English
1350 Olive Kitteridge Elizabeth Strout 2008 American English
4389 The Door Szabó, Magda 1987 Hungarian Hungarian
1692 Cassandra Christa Wolf 1983 German German
1789 A Little Life Hanya Yanagihara 2015 American English
122 Memoirs of Hadrian Marguerite Yourcenar 1951 French French