What we talk about when we talk about Elena Ferrante

Earlier this week, an Italian reporter claimed to have uncovered, through a rather bizarre and intrusive piece of investigative journalism, the identity of one of my favourite writers in the world, Elena Ferrante. This was probably bound to happen sooner or later. Ferrante is female, and Ferrante is a great writer, and there are people in this world who believe the coincidence of those two facts is so rare as to require some kind of biographical explanation. Nevertheless, Elena Ferrante...