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 of My Brilliant Friend, known in English as the Neapolitan Quartet. Consisting of over twenty 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 it isn’t good enough for publication. She contemplates her relationship with psychoanalysis, with the cities she has lived in, with motherhood, with feminism, and with her childhood as a storehouse of memories, material, and stories. The result is a vibrant and intimate selfportrait of a writer at work.

The interview that begins on p. 299 of Frantumaglia is incorrectly attributed to Mauricio Meireles. This interview was conducted by Isabel Lucas and published on July 17 2015 in Público's literary supplement Ipsilon under the title “Elena Ferrante? Treze letras, nem mais new menus.” The editors of Frantumaglia wish to express their apologies to all parties concerned.

Praise for Elena Ferrante

“[The Neapolitan Novels are] the most powerful and nuanced view of female friendship ever written.”—The New York Times

“Nothing quite like [the Neapolitan Novels] has ever been published . . . Brilliant novels, exquisitely translated.”—Meghan O’Rourke, The Guardian

“Her charting of the rivalries and sheer inscrutability of female friendship is raw.”—The Telegraph

“With the publication of her Neapolitan Novels, (Ferrante) has established herself as the foremost writer in Italy – and the world.”—The Sunday Times

Elena Ferrante
Elena Ferrante is the author of The Days of Abandonment (Europa, 2005), Troubling Love (Europa, 2006), The Lost Daughter (Europa, 2008), and the four novels known as the Neapolitan Quartet (My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, and The Story of the Lost Child) which were published by Europa Editions between 2012 and 2015. My Brilliant Friend, the HBO series directed by Saverio Costanzo, premiered in 2018. Ferrante is also the author of Frantumaglia: A Writer’s Journey (Europa, 2016), a children’s picture book illustrated by Mara Cerri, The Beach at Night (Europa, 2016), and a collection of personal essays illustrated by Andrea Ucini entitled Incidental Inventions (Europa, 2019). The Lost Daughter will be made into a feature film directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal and starring Olivia Colman. Her most recent novel is The Lying Life of Adults (Europa, 2020). In the Margins, a collection of original essays on reading and writing, was published by Europa in 2022.

• Jul 25 2017
  On Frantumaglia: A Writer's Journey by Elena Ferrante
  — Kenyon Review
• Jul 20 2017
  28 of the best books for your summer holiday
  — The Telegraph
• Apr 14 2017
  Frantumaglia, A Writer’s Journey by Elena Ferrante tr. Ann Goldstein
  — Word by Word
• Mar 1 2017
  A total portrait of the artist as an absence
  — Bookanista
• Dec 22 2016
  Novelist sheds light on shadowy life
  — lfpress.com
• Dec 1 2016
  Rifling through Elena Ferrante’s writing desk
  — The Spectator