The mysterious identity of the author behind the best book of the 21st century
Elena Ferrante, a famous author listed as one of the most influential people in the world, is still a mystery. Despite her significant impact with her novel My Brilliant Friend, no one has ever seen the identity of this literary author.
Recently, The New York Times embarked on an ambitious project to mark the first 25 years of the 21st century by identifying the most influential books of the past quarter century. They surveyed more than 500 writers, poets, and book enthusiasts to select the ten most influential works published since January 1, 2000.
Leading the list is Ferrante’s Extraordinary Friend. In addition, Ferrante’s The Story of a Lost Child and Abandoned Days also entered the top 100. Once again, the mysterious background of the Italian writer is very curious to the book-loving community.
30 Years of Anonymity
Elena Ferrante has gained worldwide recognition for her four-part novel series, especially The Extraordinary Friend, which became an instant bestseller upon release in 2011. In 2016, Ferrante was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people.
Since the publication of her first novel Troubling Love in 1992, Ferrante has kept a low profile. She has given interviews but has never appeared in the media or attended a press conference. Even her editors, translators and publishers had never met her in person.
Ferrante has a close relationship with Sandra Ozzola, her longtime editor, and Sandro Ferri, who headed Edizioni E/O, the Italian publisher of Ferrante’s work for decades. In the US, Europa Editions publishes her books, but editor-in-chief Michael Reynolds is unaware of Ferrante’s true identity and wants to keep it that way. “I was completely unenthusiastic about this from day one,” Reynolds said.
Ferrante’s English translator, Ann Goldstein, had also never met her. Over time, Ferrante has revealed some personal information, such as her upbringing in Naples and her background as the daughter of a seamstress. She is married and has children, but she maintains her identity, citing her initial reluctance to reveal herself.
Ferrante is discreet but not reclusive. She writes for The Guardian and Italian newspapers and has published Frantumaglia, a book containing personal information and interviews with journalists. When participating in interviews, she frequently reflects on her works—the influences, motivations, and reasons behind her anonymity.
The search for the real Elena Ferrante
In March 2016, Italian novelist and scholar Marco Santagata published an article speculating about Ferrante’s identity based on literary analysis, urban details in Pisa, and current political knowledge. Italian era. He suggested that Ferrante could be Professor Marcella Marmo, who lived in Pisa from 1964 to 1966. Both Marmo and the publisher denied this theory.
In October 2016, investigative reporter Claudio Gatti used real estate and royalty payment records to conclude that Anita Raja, a translator in Rome, was Ferrante. This statement was met with backlash as a violation of privacy and in December 2016, a segment on El Mundo featured an interview with Raja confirming her identity as Ferrante, which was quickly denied. Ferrante’s publisher dismissed it as a fake.
In September 2017, a group of scholars and linguists at the University of Padua analyzed 150 Italian novels by 40 different authors, including seven by Ferrante. They concluded that Ferrante could be Domenico Starnone, Raja’s husband and a writer and journalist. Raja worked with E/O Publishing as an editor for Starnone books. However, Ferrante has repeatedly denied claims that she is a man, and many fans believe she is a woman because of her nuanced and sensitive female roles.
In a 2014 email interview with Entertainment Weekly, Ferrante was asked if she regretted not revealing her identity and if she ever felt a surge of ego wanting to scream: “I created this world!” Her answer was clear: “The window image is interesting. My house is on the top floor, I’m afraid of heights and my ego likes to avoid having to lean out the window.”
