Frantumaglia: A Writer's Journey [Hardcover]

Named one of The Guardian's Best Books of 2016

From the author ofMy Brilliant Friend

This book invites readers into Elena Ferrante’s workshop. It offers a glimpse into the drawers of her writing desk, those drawers from which emerged her three early standalone novels and the four installments ofMy Brilliant Friend, known in English as the Neapolitan Quartet. Consisting of over 20 years of letters, essays, reflections, and interviews, it is a unique depiction of an author who embodies a consummate passion for writing.
 
In these pages Ferrante answers many of her readers’ questions. She addresses her choice to stand aside and let her books live autonomous lives. She discusses her thoughts and concerns as her novels are being adapted into films. She talks about the challenge of finding concise answers to interview questions. She explains the joys and the struggles of writing, the anguish of composing a story only to discover that that story isn’t good enough. She contemplates her relationship with psychoanalysis, with the cities she has lived in, with motherhood, with feminism, and with her childhood as a storehouse for memories, impressions, and fantasies. The result is a vibrant and intimate self-portrait of a writer at work.

Elena Ferranteis the author ofThe Days of Abandonment(Europa, 2005), which was made into a film directed by Roberto Faenza,Troubling Love(Europa, 2006), adapted by Mario Martone, andThe Lost Daughter(Europa, 2008), soon to be a film directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal. She is also the author of aFrantumaglia: A Writers Journey(Europa, 2016) in which she recounts her experience as a novelist, and a childrens picture book illustrated by Mara Cerri,The Beach at Night(Europa, 2016). The four volumes known as the Neapolitan quartet (My Brilliant Friend,The Story of a New Name,Those Who LeavelsW