IRA MATH­UR

This week, the book­shelf spot­lights a writer who re­mains anony­mous. She writes as if she’s speak­ing with dis­arm­ing hon­esty, and her con­nec­tion with women read­ers is in­stant. Her books have sold over 30 mil­lion copies world­wide and have been trans­lat­ed in­to more than 40 lan­guages.

2016 Time named Ele­na Fer­rante one of the 100 Most In­flu­en­tial Peo­ple. She was short­list­ed for the Man Book­er In­ter­na­tion­al Prize and won the Gold Medal for Lit­er­ary Fic­tion at the In­de­pen­dent Pub­lish­er Book Awards for The Sto­ry of the Lost Child. In 2014, The Sto­ry of a New Name was short­list­ed for the Best Trans­lat­ed Book Award.

Her pseu­do­nym is Ele­na Fer­rante. In an age dom­i­nat­ed by the cult of per­son­al­i­ty, Ele­na Fer­rante’s ded­i­ca­tion to her craft and her choice to re­main out of the pub­lic eye speak vol­umes about her com­mit­ment to lit­er­a­ture. Her nov­els of­fer a refuge from the su­per­fi­cial­i­ty of mod­ern celebri­ty cul­ture, pro­vid­ing a space where read­ers can con­nect with the deep­est parts of them­selves through the sto­ries of oth­ers.

Fer­rante has been clear about her mo­ti­va­tions, re­veal­ing to the Paris Re­view, “I don’t want to be a pub­lic fig­ure. I want my work to speak for it­self.”

This anonymi­ty has sparked spec­u­la­tion about her true iden­ti­ty, with the­o­ries sug­gest­ing var­i­ous Ital­ian writ­ers and aca­d­e­mics. De­spite ef­forts to un­mask her, Fer­rante re­mains enig­mat­ic, pre­fer­ring to let her work speak for it­self.

Her anonymi­ty al­lows her to fo­cus sole­ly on her writ­ing, cre­at­ing an en­vi­ron­ment where the read­er’s en­gage­ment is ex­clu­sive­ly with the sto­ries she tells rather than the per­son be­hind them.

Fer­rante has main­tained her dogged com­mit­ment to anonymi­ty de­spite soar­ing fame, be­liev­ing that once books are writ­ten, they no longer need their au­thors. In in­ter­views, Fer­rante has de­nied writ­ing specif­i­cal­ly for women. “I don’t write for women. I write for those who feel their ex­pe­ri­ences, emo­tions, and strug­gles are worth ex­plor­ing, re­gard­less of gen­der.”

Her sto­ries res­onate with any­one who grap­ples with the com­plex­i­ties of ex­is­tence. Yet read­ers are drawn to her work, seek­ing to un­der­stand the pro­found com­plex­i­ties of what it means to be a woman. Her writ­ing of­fers an un­fil­tered ex­plo­ration of the strug­gles, tri­umphs, and in­ti­mate mo­ments that de­fine women’s lives.

The New York­er not­ed, “Fer­rante’s nov­els are a mas­ter­class in em­pa­thy, ex­plor­ing com­plex­i­ties of fe­male friend­ship with hon­esty that is ex­hil­a­rat­ing and heart­break­ing.”

Through her vivid sto­ry­telling, Fer­rante pro­vides a voice to women’s in­ner lives, of­fer­ing so­lace and pro­found in­sights in­to the uni­ver­sal ex­pe­ri­ences that shape our iden­ti­ties.

The Guardian ob­served the raw­ness of her women’s char­ac­ters: “Fer­rante’s work re­veals the un­spo­ken strug­gles of women, giv­ing voice to their most in­ti­mate fears and de­sires.”

Fer­rante’s char­ac­ters are deeply flawed and hu­man, cap­tur­ing the com­plex­i­ty of re­al re­la­tion­ships. Her work em­braces the messi­ness of emo­tions, of­fer­ing read­ers a pow­er­ful re­flec­tion of their own lives.

As she told The Guardian, “I write be­cause I must. The need to put in­to words what I see and feel is a fun­da­men­tal part of who I am.”

Ele­na Fer­rante’s Neapoli­tan Quar­tet has been praised for ex­plor­ing friend­ship, iden­ti­ty, and so­ci­etal pres­sures. The se­ries fol­lows child­hood friends Ele­na and Lila as they nav­i­gate life in post-war Naples, with a nar­ra­tive that mir­rors the so­cial and po­lit­i­cal changes shap­ing their lives.

I read her books as I dis­cov­ered them, but if you want to im­merse your­self in Fer­rante’s work, here’s a rec­om­mend­ed read­ing or­der.

“My Bril­liant Friend” (2011)

The first book in the ac­claimed Neapoli­tan Quar­tet in­tro­duces the in­tense friend­ship be­tween Ele­na and Lila, two girls grow­ing up in Naples in the 1950s. The friend­ship be­tween Ele­na and Lila is de­pict­ed with rare psy­cho­log­i­cal acu­ity, marked by in­tense ri­val­ry, deep af­fec­tion, and an evolv­ing dy­nam­ic that feels al­most in­va­sive in its hon­esty.

This nov­el sets the stage for the quar­tet, ex­plor­ing themes of fe­male friend­ship, am­bi­tion, and so­ci­etal ex­pec­ta­tions. It shows Fer­rante’s abil­i­ty to ren­der the messi­ness of hu­man re­la­tion­ships with re­mark­able clar­i­ty.

“The Sto­ry of a New Name” (2012)

Con­tin­u­ing from My Bril­liant Friend, this sec­ond in­stal­ment chron­i­cles the lives of Ele­na and Lila as they nav­i­gate adult­hood and delves in­to their chang­ing iden­ti­ties and the im­pact of their choic­es on their per­son­al and so­cial lives. It’s a pow­er­ful con­tin­u­a­tion of the first sto­ry.

“Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay” (2013) The third book in the se­ries fo­cus­es on the fur­ther de­vel­op­ment of Ele­na and Lila’s lives, ex­am­in­ing their jour­neys through po­lit­i­cal up­heaval, per­son­al be­tray­als, and shift­ing am­bi­tions. This nov­el in­ten­si­fies the emo­tion­al depth and stakes, of­fer­ing a clos­er look at how so­ci­etal changes in­flu­ence in­di­vid­ual des­tinies and friend­ships.

“The Sto­ry of the Lost Child” (2014)

The fi­nal book in the Neapoli­tan Quar­tet poignant­ly con­cludes the saga, re­solv­ing the in­ter­twined fates of Ele­na and Lila. This nov­el ad­dress­es themes of iden­ti­ty, mem­o­ry, and the im­pact of time on per­son­al re­la­tion­ships. It of­fers a re­flec­tive end to the se­ries, pro­vid­ing clo­sure and deep emo­tion­al res­o­nance.

“The Lost Daugh­ter” (2003)

The Lost Daugh­ter (La figlia os­cu­ra) is a nov­el about Le­da, a woman ob­sessed with a fam­i­ly she ob­serves on an Ital­ian beach, lead­ing her to re­flect on her ex­pe­ri­ences as a young moth­er. The nov­el ex­plores moth­er­hood, iden­ti­ty, and ob­ses­sion themes, show­cas­ing Fer­rante’s tal­ent for deep psy­cho­log­i­cal in­sights.

“The Days of Aban­don­ment” (2005)

Fer­rante’s sec­ond nov­el, The Days of Aban­don­ment (I giorni dell’ab­ban­dono), pub­lished in 2002, tells the sto­ry of Ol­ga, a woman whose life spi­rals out of con­trol af­ter her hus­band leaves her for a younger woman and vivid­ly por­trays Ol­ga’s psy­cho­log­i­cal un­rav­el­ling.

“The Ly­ing Life of Adults” (2019)

The Ly­ing Life of Adults (La vi­ta bu­gia­r­da degli adul­ti) re­vis­its themes of com­ing-of-age and iden­ti­ty. The nov­el fol­lows Gio­van­na, a young girl in 1990s Naples, as she em­barks on a jour­ney to dis­cov­er the truth about her fam­i­ly’s past af­ter over­hear­ing a dis­parag­ing com­ment from her fa­ther. The book was adapt­ed in­to a tele­vi­sion se­ries of the same name by Edoar­do De An­ge­lis in 2023.

“In the Mar­gins: On the Plea­sures of Read­ing and Writ­ing” (2022)

This book, based on lec­tures Fer­rante wrote for the Um­ber­to Eco lec­ture se­ries, delves in­to the plea­sures and in­tri­ca­cies of read­ing and writ­ing.

“Fran­tu­maglia: A Writer’s Jour­ney” (2003, ex­pand­ed in 2016)

Fran­tu­maglia is a col­lec­tion of let­ters, in­ter­views, and es­says that of­fer in­sights in­to Fer­rante’s thoughts on writ­ing, iden­ti­ty, and her process. It’s an es­sen­tial read for any­one look­ing to un­der­stand the mind be­hind her nov­els and con­nect with her themes and style.

Ele­na Fer­rante’s nov­els have in­spired sev­er­al film and tele­vi­sion adap­ta­tions, in­clud­ing The Lost Daugh­ter, di­rect­ed by Mag­gie Gyl­len­haal, and the HBO se­ries My Bril­liant Friend, which brings her Neapoli­tan Nov­els to the screen.

Ira Math­ur is a Guardian Me­dia jour­nal­ist and the win­ner of the 2023 OCM Bo­cas Prize for Non-Fic­tion for her mem­oir, Love The Dark Days.

Web­site: www.iras­room.org