▌《我的天才女友》

两个女孩中，莉拉更有天分更漂亮，大胆泼辣。小学时，为了保护好友埃莱娜免受男孩子的欺负，瘦弱的莉拉可以把刀架到壮硕的放高利贷主的儿子的脖子上。

埃莱娜是更努力的那个，她羡慕和嫉妒莉拉，努力读书想超过人人喜爱又惧怕的女友，然而在某种程度上她变成了莉拉的一个影子，或者说她一直生活在莉拉的阴影之下。

在小说的结尾，她们的人生列车驶入迥异的轨道。莉拉的父母不愿意再让女儿继续读书，小学毕业后她就终止了学业，十六岁便嫁给了熟食店老板的儿子，过上了阔太太的生活。

埃莱娜更幸运一些，她得到了父母的支持，进入了高中。

▌《新名字的故事》

从十六岁到二十出头，两位女主开启了截然不同的人生篇章，虽然不出现在彼此的视线，但那种对于可能的美好人生的渴望依然刺激着她们互相较劲。

不过，二人也依旧惺惺相惜，互相帮助。

埃莱娜进入高等学府，努力摆脱自己粗俗的那不勒斯方言和行为举止，成为学校著名左派弗朗科的女朋友，风光一时。

毕业后，她写成自传体小说出版，并和上流知识分子家庭的儿子彼得罗订婚。而莉拉在无聊的婚姻生活中苦苦挣扎，出轨后离开丈夫，并经历了一系列狗血事件，最后在一家香肠工厂做女工，独自抚养儿子，为生活苦苦挣扎。

小说的结尾，莉拉和埃莱娜共同爱的男人、“渣男”尼诺出现在埃莱娜的新书分享会上。就像热播美剧的结尾，为第三部埋下了让人欲罢不能的伏笔。

▌《离开的，留下的》

埃莱娜与知识分子彼得罗结婚生子后过着复杂混乱难熬的婚姻生活，而莉拉投身工人运动后离开香肠工厂，在巨大的恐惧和日常琐碎的消耗中，她身心俱疲，几近崩溃。

她派朋友把埃莱娜找来，告诉她她们分开的这些时光她都经历了什么。

在埃莱娜的帮助下，莉拉进入计算机行业，凭借天赋和努力，她逐步提高收入变成了经济独立的女性。

结婚并生有两个女儿的埃莱娜在经历了种种压抑和女性解放思想的启蒙后，自我觉醒。

在小说的结尾，她的第二本关于女性的小书即将出版，她不顾一切地离开丈夫奔向自己内心积压多年的欲望而去。

So I tried leaving the baby to Pietro, who thanks to his habit of studying at night wasn't so tired. I said: I'm exhausted, call me in a couple of hours, and I went to bed and fell asleep as if I had lost consciousness. 

我试着把女儿交给彼得罗照顾，因为他习惯了晚上学习，他夜里不会很困。我说：“我太累了，你过两个小时来叫我。”我躺在床上，一下子就睡了过去，简直像失去意识般。

But once I was wakened by the baby's desperate wailing, I waited; it didn't stop. I got up. I discovered that Pietro had dragged the crib into his study and, paying no attention to his daughter's cries, was bent over his books, taking notes as if he were deaf. 

但后来我被孩子绝望的哭声吵醒了，我等了一下，哭声一直没停下来。我起来了，我发现彼得罗把孩子的摇篮搬到了他的书房里，他没太关注孩子哭得撕心裂肺，还在那里埋头工作，就好像聋了一样，他在填写一些表格。

I lost all my manners, and regressed, insulting him in my dialect. "You don't give a damn about anything, that stuff is more important than your daughter? "

我失去了控制，用方言狠狠骂了他一顿：“你他妈什么都不管，那玩意儿要比你女儿更重要吗？”

My husband, distant, cool, asked me to leave the room, take away the crib. He had an important article to finish for an English journal, the deadline was very near. 

我丈夫冷冰冰地，非常漠然地让我从他的房间出去，并且把孩子的摇篮带出去。他有一篇非常重要的文章要完成，是为一个英语杂志写的，交稿期限很近了。

From then on I stopped asking him for help and if he offered I said: "Go on, thanks, I know you have things to do." After dinner he hung around me uncertain, awkward, then he closed himself in his study and worked until late at night. 

从那时候开始，我再也没有请求过他的帮助。假如他自愿要帮忙，我会说：“谢谢，不用了，你去吧，我知道你有事。”吃完晚饭后，他会在我身边转悠，笨手笨脚，不知道要做什么，然后会把自己关在书房里，一直工作到深夜。

I felt abandoned but with the impression that I deserved it: I wasn't capable of providing tranquility for my daughter. Yet I kept going, doggedly, even though I was more and more frightened. 

我感觉被抛弃了，但觉得自己活该：我没办法让女儿安静下来。无论如何，尽管我越来越害怕了，但我都咬着牙撑着。

My organism was rejecting the role of mother. And no matter how I denied the pain in my leg by doing everything possible to ignore it, it had returned, and was getting worse. 

我的身体拒绝成为一个母亲。我尽一切努力，在对抗我的腿，无视腿疼的问题，但疼痛却越来越严重。

But I persisted, I wore myself out taking charge of everything. Since the building had no elevator, I carried the stroller with the baby in it up and down, I did the shopping, came home loaded down with bags, I cleaned the house, I cooked, I thought: I'm becoming ugly and old before my time, like the women of the neighborhood. 

我咬牙坚持，我拎着所有东西上楼。那栋楼里没有电梯，我就把孩子放在小车里，自己把小车抬上去、抬下来，我去买东西，拎着大包小包回来。我打扫房间，做饭，我想：我很快就会变得又老又丑，就像以前住的城区里的女人。

"I don't want slaves in my house," he said. 

“我不想家里有奴隶。”他说。

Adele answered calmly: "She's not a slave, she's a salaried employee."

阿黛尔（婆婆）不紧不慢地说：“她不是奴隶，我们付工资给她。”

And I, fortified by the presence of my mother-in-law, stammered: "Do you think I should be a slave?"

因为有婆婆撑腰，我忍不住说了一句：“那你觉得，我应该当奴隶？”

"You're a mother, not a slave."

“你是母亲，不是奴隶。”

"I wash and iron your clothes, I clean the house, I cook for you, I've given you a daughter, I bring her up in the midst of endless difficulties, I'm worn out."

“我给你洗衣服，熨衣服，打扫卫生，给你做饭，给你生了孩子，我还要千辛万苦把她养大，我要崩溃了。”

"And who makes you do that, have I ever asked you for anything?" 

“谁强迫你了，我什么时候要求过你？”

I couldn't bear to argue, but Adele did, she crushed her son with a sometimes ferocious sarcasm, and Clelia remained. Then she took the child away from me, carried the crib into the room I had given her, managed with great precision the schedule of bottles both at night and during the day. 

我受不了这样的冲突，但阿黛尔（婆婆）可以，她用冷嘲热讽的语气，节节击退了她儿子。后来克莱利亚（保姆）留了下来，她从我手中接过孩子，把摇篮带到了我给她安排的房间，无论是白天还是晚上，她都非常准时地给孩子准备奶粉。

When she noticed that I was limping, she took me to a doctor, a friend of hers, who prescribed various injections. She herself appeared every morning and every evening with the syringe and the vials, to blithely stick the needle into my buttocks. 

当我婆婆看到我走路一瘸一拐的，就带我去看了医生，那是她的一个朋友，医生给我开了一些注射的药。她每天早上和晚上，都亲自拿着煮过的针管和针头，还有药水，给我的屁股打针，又准又狠。

I felt better right away, the pain in my leg disappeared, my mood improved, I was happier. 

我马上就感觉好多了，我的腿疼消失了，心情也慢慢开朗了。

But Adele didn't stop there. She politely insisted that I attend to myself, she sent me to the hairdresser, made me go back to the dentist. And above all she talked to me constantly about the theater, the cinema, a book she was translating, another she was editing, what her husband or other famous people whom she called familiarly by name had written in this or that journal. 

但阿黛尔并没有停止照顾我，她很得体地要求我收拾打扮自己，她带我去做头发，带我去看牙医。尤其是，她一直在跟我谈论剧院、电影院还有她正在翻译和正在编写的书，杂志上别人都写了什么文章，还有评论他丈夫的或者其他名人的文章，她亲昵地直呼这些人的名字。

From her I heard for the first time about the new radical feminist tracts.

我从她嘴里，第一次听说了一份非常有斗争精神的女性主义杂志。