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Elena Ferrante is an Italian author that is responsible for the immensely popular ‘Neopolitan’ series of novels. She was one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2016. The author is as famous for her name as she is for her novels.
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Order of Neapolitan Series
| # | Read | Title | Published | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | My Brilliant Friend | 2011 | Description / Buy | |
| 2 | The Story of a New Name | 2012 | Description / Buy | |
| 3 | Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay | 2013 | Description / Buy | |
| 4 | The Story of the Lost Child | 2014 | Description / Buy |
Order of Elena Ferrante Standalone Novels
| # | Read | Title | Published | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Days of Abandonment | 2002 | Description / Buy | |
| 2 | Troubling Love (Short Story) | 2006 | Description / Buy | |
| 3 | The Lost Daughter (Short Story) | 2006 | Description / Buy | |
| 4 | The Lying Life of Adults | 2019 | Description / Buy |
Order of Elena Ferrante Picture Books
| # | Read | Title | Published | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Beach at Night (Short Story) | 2007 | Description / Buy |
Order of Elena Ferrante Non-Fiction Books
| # | Read | Title | Published | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Frantumaglia | 2003 | Description / Buy | |
| 2 | Incidental Inventions (Short Story) | 2019 | Description / Buy | |
| 3 | In the Margins | 2021 | Description / Buy |
Her real identity hasn’t yet been discovered. ‘Elena Ferrante’ is a pseudonym. She created it before ‘L’Amore molesto’, her debut novel was published in 1992. She chose to attach it to the fictional works she wrote and published in the years that followed.
She spends a lot of time writing about complex female characters and the friendships and rivalries that manifest between them. The Neopolitan novels follow two intelligent girls that have to maneuver the restrictions that culture imposes on them in Naples in the early 1940s.
Ferrante believes in her work. She believes that it can stand on its own and that the knowledge of her real identity doesn’t serve any real purpose as far as the enjoyment of her readers is concerned. To Ferrante, her anonymity is crucial to her writing process.
Ferrante’s stories were originally published in Italian. She gained international fame when the English translations of her work reached the market.
The fact that she is a popular author that has succeeded in maintaining her anonymity baffles people. Many attempts have been made to bring her real identity to light, one of the most notable being the article that James Wood wrote for The New Yorker in 2013.
He used a series of letters, essays, and interviews that Ferrante published in 2003 to conclude that she probably grew up in Naples but she spent significant portions of her life outside Italy. Wood also suggested that she had been a mother and a wife at some point and that she had a classics degree.
Marco Santagata, a professor from the University of Pisa, took a different route in his efforts to unravel her identity. He analyzed the author’s writing, using her detailed descriptions of the cityscape to determine that she had lived in Pisa for a time and was also quite knowledgeable about contemporary Italian politics.
Unlike James Wood, Marco went so far as to declare Marcella Marmo as the real person behind Elana Ferrante. His claims were refuted by all the relevant parties.
Claudio Gatti, an investigative reporter, took things a step further by looking at the financial transactions surrounding Ferrante. He was quite confident when he pointed the finger at a translator in Rome by the names of Anita Raja. Whether or not his conclusions were correct, Gatti was severely criticized by the public, with readers and professionals in the industry demanding that the world respect Elena Ferrante’s right to her privacy.
Elena Ferrante Awards
The author’s work has been shortlisted for a Man Booker International Prize and a ‘Best Translated Book’ Award. She won the ‘Independent Publishers Book’ Award.
Elena Ferrante Books into Movies
Mario Martone turned ‘Troubling Love’ into a live-action movie titled ‘Nasty Love’. ‘The Days of Abandonment’ was adapted by Roberto Faenza into a movie of the same name. The first book in the ‘Neopolitan’ series was turned into a miniseries.
Best Elena Ferrante Books
The mystery behind Ferrante’s identity has attracted so much interest that numerous scholars and scientists have continued to work tirelessly to identify the real person behind the pseudonym through a detailed analysis of her work, with some of the best books in her bibliography including:
My Brilliant Friend: Elena, a woman in her 60s, has just received a call from Lila’s son. Her childhood friend has disappeared and no one can find her. The son is worried but Elena believes that Lila’s disappearance was intentional. She had often spoken of doing just that.
Rather than losing herself in the frantic search for Lila, Elena chooses to write about their relationship. She takes readers back to the poor and violent neighborhood the girls called home, the animosity their determination to secure a good education created and the divergent paths their lives took.
The Story of a New Name: Readers were introduced to Elena and Lila in the first Neopolitan novel. The sequel follows the girls as they embark on the next adventure of their lives. Lila is married, so she must acclimate to her role in the family business. Elena has finally escaped her neighborhood. Through the journey she embarks upon as a result of her studies, Elena will encounter love, friendship, commitment, jealousy, and freedom.
When Does The Next Elena Ferrante book come out?
Elena Ferrante doesn't seem to have an upcoming book. Their newest book is In the Margins and was released on November, 17th 2021. It is the newest book in the Elena Ferrante Non-Fiction Books.