Elena Ferrante Names her 40 Favourite Books by Female Authors

This is one of the 759 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
443 Americanah Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2013 Nigerian English
1261 The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood 2000 Canadian English
14985 The Enlightenment Of The Greengage Tree Shokoofeh Azar 2017 Iranian Persian
915 Malina Ingeborg Bachmann 1971 Austrian German
2827 A Manual For Cleaning Women Lucia Berlin 2015 American English
1101 Outline Rachel Cusk 2014 British English
370 The Year of Magical Thinking Joan Didion 2005 American English
17152 A Girl Returned Donatella Di Pietrantonio 2017 Italian Italian
14232 Disoriental Négar Djavadi 2016 French French
296 The Lover Marguerite Duras 1984 French French
597 The Years Annie Ernaux 2008 French French
526 Family Sayings Natalia Ginzburg 1963 Italian Italian
2605 The Conservationist Nadine Gordimer 1974 South African English
2805 Fates and Furies Lauren Groff 2015 American English
17152 Motherhood Sheila Heti 2018 Canadian English
789 The Piano Teacher Elfriede Jelinek 1983 Austrian German
6757 Breasts And Eggs Mieko Kawakami 2008 Japanese Japanese
1775 Interpreter of Maladies Jhumpa Lahiri 1999 American English
10739 The Fifth Child Doris May Lessing 1988 British English
532 The Passion According to G.H. Clarice Lispector 1964 Brazilian Portuguese
2706 Lost Children Archive Valeria Luiselli 2019 Mexican English
1532 Arturo's Island Elsa Morante 1957 Italian Italian
49 Beloved Toni Morrison 1987 American English
14985 Dear Life Alice Munro 2012 Canadian English
1385 The Bell Iris Murdoch 1958 British English
17152 Accabadora Michela Murgia 2009 Italian Italian
14867 Le Bal Irène Némirovsky 1930 French French
747 Blonde Joyce Carol Oates 2000 American English
17152 The Love Object Edna O'Brien 2013 Irish English
208 A Good Man Is Hard to Find Flannery O'Connor 1953 American English
15910 Evening Descends Upon The Hills Anna Maria Ortese 1961 Italian Italian
475 Gilead Marilynne Robinson 2004 American English
1211 Normal People Sally Rooney 2018 Irish English
359 The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy 1997 Indian English
221 White Teeth Zadie Smith 2000 British English
1354 Olive Kitteridge Elizabeth Strout 2008 American English
3285 The Door Szabó, Magda 1987 Hungarian Hungarian
1694 Cassandra Christa Wolf 1983 German German
1765 A Little Life Hanya Yanagihara 2015 American English
123 Memoirs of Hadrian Marguerite Yourcenar 1951 French French