Elena Ferrante - Frantumaglia: A Writer’s Journey

PRAISE FOR ELENA FERRANTES NEAPOLITAN NOVELS

One of the great novelists of our timeIn these bold, gorgeous, relentless novels, Ferrante traces the deep connections between the political and the domestic. This is a new version of the way we live nowone we need, one told brilliantly, by a woman. New York Times

Ferrante writes with the kind of power saved for weather systems with female names, sparing no oneA tour de force. I dont want to read anything else. LA Times

Perhaps because of the freedom afforded by anonymity, Ferrantes work feels intensely personalwritten, as the reclusive author believes all fiction should be, as if your innermost self had been ransackedFerrantes sentences have an incantatory power, as well as profound psychological and cultural insights. Slate

Great novels are intelligent far beyond the powers of any character or writer or individual reader, as are great friendships, in their way. These wonderful books sit at the heart of that mystery, with the warmth and power of both. Harpers

Elena Ferrante will blow you away. Alice Sebold

The Neapolitan novel cycle is an unconditional masterpiece I read all the books in a state of immersion; I was totally enthralled. There was nothing else I wanted to do except follow the lives of Lila and Len to the end. Jhumpa Lahiri, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Lowland

The older you get, the harder it is to recapture the intoxicating sense of discovery that comes when you first read George Eliot, Nabokov, Tolstoy or Colette. But this year it came again when I read Elena Ferrantes remarkable Neapolitan novels. New Statesman

ALSO BY ELENA FERRANTE

The Days of Abandonment

The Lost Daughter

Troubling Love

My Brilliant Friend

The Story of a New Name

Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay

The Story of the Lost Child

The Beach at Night

Elena Ferrante was born in Naples. She is the author of seven novels: The Days of Abandonment, Troubling Love, The Lost Daughter, the quartet of Neapolitan novels, My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay and The Story of the Lost Childas well as a childrens story, The Beach at Night. She is one of Italys most acclaimed writers.

Ann Goldstein has translated all of Elena Ferrantes work. She is an editor at the New Yorker and the recipient of the PEN Renato Poggioli Translation Prize.

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The moral rights of the author and translator have been asserted.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright above, no part of this publication shall be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.

First published in Italian by Edizione E/O as Frantumaglia

First published in English by Europa Editions, 2016

This edition published by The Text Publishing Company, 2016

Cover design by W.H. Chong

Cover photograph: Bill Henson, Untitled 113, 198384, courtesy of the artist & Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry (pbk)

Author: Ferrante, Elena, author.

Title: Frantumaglia: a writers journey / by Elena Ferrante; translated by Ann Goldstein.

ISBN: 9781925240542 (paperback)

ISBN: 9781922253293 (ebook)

Subjects: Ferrante, ElenaCriticism and interpretation. Ferrante, ElenaCorrespondence. Ferrante, ElenaInterviews. Women authors, Italian20th century.

Other Creators/Contributors: Goldstein, Ann, 1949- translator.

Dewey Number: 853.92

CONTENTS

THESE LETTERS

These letters are intended for those who have read, loved, and talked about Troubling Love and The Days of Abandonment, Elena Ferrantes first two novels. Over the years, the first became a cult book, and in 1995 Mario Martone made a film based on it; meanwhile, questions about the authors public reticence multiplied. The second novel further broadened her audience; she gained passionate readers, both male and female; and questions about the person of Elena Ferrante became pressing.

To satisfy the curiosity of this exacting yet generous audience, we decided to collect here some letters from the author to Edizioni E/O; the few interviews she has given; and her correspondence with particular readers. Among other things, these writings should clarify, we hope conclusively, the writers motives for remaining outside, the media circus and its demands, as she has for ten years.

Sandra Ozzola and Sandro Ferri,

publishers of Edizioni E/O

and Europa Editions.

NOTE

This introduction was included in an earlier edition of La Frantumaglia, released in Italy in September, 2003.

All the notes that follow have been added by the editors of this unabridged and updated edition of Frantumaglia.

THE GIFT OF THE BEFANA

Dear Sandra,

During the meeting I had recently with you and your husband, which was very enjoyable, you asked me what I intend to do for the promotion of Troubling Love (its good that youre getting me used to calling the book by its final title). You asked the question ironically, with one of your bemused expressions. There and then, I didnt have the courage to answer you: I thought I had already been clear with Sandro; he had said that he absolutely agreed with my decision, and I hoped that he wouldnt return to the subject, even jokingly. Now Im answering in writing, which eliminates awkward pauses, hesitations, any possibility of compliance.

I do not intend to do anything for Troubling Love, anything that might involve the public engagement of me personally. Ive already done enough for this long story: I wrote it. If the book is worth anything, that should be sufficient. I wont participate in discussions and conferences, if Im invited. I wont go and accept prizes, if any are awarded to me. I will never promote the book, especially on television, not in Italy or, as the case may be, abroad. I will be interviewed only in writing, but I would prefer to limit even that to the indispensable minimum. I am absolutely committed in this sense to myself and my family. I hope not to be forced to change my mind. I understand that this may cause some difficulties at the publishing house. I have great respect for your work, I liked you both immediately, and I dont want to cause trouble. If you no longer mean to support me, tell me right away, Ill understand. Its not at all necessary for me to publish this book. To explain all the reasons for my decision, is, as you know, hard for me. I will only tell you that its a small wager with myself, with my convictions. I believe that books, once they are written, have no need of their authors. If they have something to say, they will sooner or later find readers; if not, they wont. There are plenty of examples. I very much love those mysterious volumes, both ancient and modern, that have no definite author but have had and continue to have an intense life of their own. They seem to me a sort of nighttime miracle, like the gifts of the Befana, which I waited for as a child. I went to bed in great excitement and in the morning I woke up and the gifts were there, but no one had seen the Befana. True miracles are the ones whose makers will never be known; they are the very small miracles of the secret spirits of the home or the great miracles that leave us truly astonished. I still have this childish wish for marvels, large or small, I still believe in them.