Who is Elena Ferrante? Mysterious author has book voted best of the century

The best book of this century, according to a list organized by the New York Times, is “My Brilliant Friend” the first volume of the Neapolitan Tetralogy written by Elena Ferrante .

Ferrante also appears on the list with two other works: in 92nd place, with “Days of Abandonment”, and in 80th, with “The Story of the Lost Girl”, the fourth and final book of the Neapolitan Tetralogy.

Among his most famous works are: Neapolitan Tetralogy (formed by the books “My Brilliant Friend”, “The Story of a New Surname”, “The Story of Those Who Run Away and Those Who Stay” and “The Story of the Lost Girl”), “The Lying Life of Adults” , “An Uncomfortable Love” , “The Lost Daughter” , “Days of Abandonment” between others.

And although the Italian writer is considered by some to be one of the best authors of our time, her identity has remained shrouded in mystery since 1991, when she published her first novel: nobody knows who Elena Ferrante is.

The Mystery of Elena Ferrante

With books translated into dozens of languages ​​and more than 16 million copies sold worldwide, the writer uses the pseudonym Elena Ferrante to publish her works, but insists on remaining anonymous regarding her true identity.

In the rare interviews he has given to the press, always by email, he refuses to discuss the topic.

There are some clues that allow us to narrow down the possibilities. Elena Ferrante is probably a woman, or at least she refers to herself as such and chooses to address the theme of the female experience in the world in almost all of her works.

In non-fiction work “Frantumaglia: The Paths of a Writer” Ferrante herself provides some clues about herself and explains her decision to remain anonymous: “I believe that books do not need their authors for anything once they are written. If they have something to tell, sooner or later they will find readers; if not, not.”

In this book, she also confirms that she is the daughter of a seamstress from Naples, Italy — where the more than 60 years of history portrayed in the Neapolitan Tetralogy take place.

Suspicions

In 2016, an Italian investigative journalist named Claudio Gatti claimed to have unmasked Elena Ferrante and published an article claiming that Italian translator Anita Raja was the woman behind the pseudonym.

The journalist reportedly reached this conclusion after noticing an increase in the number of bank transactions for Raja made by the publisher Edizioni e/o, the same one that publishes Ferrante’s works, at the time when the writer began to become successful.

Others went further and said that the person behind the pseudonym was the writer Domenico Sartore, Raja’s husband. Or that the couple wrote the works together.

These claims have been denied by both Raja and Sartore, as well as Elena Ferrante herself — in writing, of course.

Women at the center of Ferrante’s work

Ferrante’s fans claim that whoever is behind this pseudonym could not possibly be a man.

Relationships between women are at the center of all of Ferrante’s works. Motherhood, without romanticization but with nuances and complexity, also appears frequently in her books.

And the protagonists — always female — of the Neapolitan Tetralogy, “The Lost Daughter”, “The Lying Life of Adults” and his other successes are complex, with deep existential and emotional issues, contradictions, defects and qualities.