The journalist Claudio Gatti argues that it is the translator Anita Raja; his fans deplore the intrusion
NEW YORK.- One of the mysteries of literary most intriguing in recent history has taken a dramatic turn: according to an Italian journalist, financial records and real estate indicate that behind Elena Ferrante, a pen name of the author of the successful series of novels, Two friends, would be the Italian translator Anita Raja, daughter of a Polish mother and jewish father napolitano.
In an article that appeared in The New York Review of Books and publications of Italy, France and Germany, Claudio Gatti, the journal of business Italian Il Sole 24 Ore, says that as of 2014, when the novels of Ferrante became popular all over the world, transfers and payments of the publishing house Edizioni E/O Anita Raja is increased exponentially.
Ferrante became an international phenomenon with his four novels, napolitanas: The girlfriend great (2011), A bad name (2012), the debts of The body (2013) and The lost girl (2014). The quartet of books follows the lives of two women from their childhood of poverty in Naples to his rise to the middle class with the Italy of the post-war period as a backdrop, exploring the complexities of the friendship of women.
In his article, Gatti says that the financial records that he received from the anonymous source show that the payments from the publisher Raja increased almost 50 percent in 2014 and by more than 150 percent in 2015, reaching $ 8.4 million. Gatti slogan that the payments coincide with the period in which Ferrante had to receive large checks for their copyright, and that none of the other employees or collaborators of the editorial exhibited such an increase in their income.
Sandra Ozzola Ferri, one of the owners of Edizioni E/O, which published the works of Ferrante -in Argentina were published by Lumen-, would not comment on the findings of Gatti. “If someone wants to be left in peace, to leave him in peace -he said Ferri-. It is not a member of the Camorra, it is not Berlusconi. She is a writer that does not hurt anyone.” Raja could not be contacted to affirm or refute the research. Gatti says that he will not answer the calls. Both Raja and her husband have previously denied links with the books.
The Italian journalist understands that many readers of Ferrante, who value its anonymity, can caerles wrong for someone to decide to investigate his identity. “But I’m a journalist of Italian research in New York, and the greatest mystery on Italy in New York is the true identity of Elena Ferrante. So I won the life: finding the answers,” he said.
in Addition to the financial records, the journalist also details in his article tracks literary that connect Raja with the books of Ferrante, in particular the fact that “Nino” -the heartthrob of novels – is also the nickname of the husband of Raja. But the main evidence of Gatti are the financial records. “Raja is a translator, a profession famous for the badly paid, that can hardly bring in income so exorbitant,” writes in his article. Last year, Raja retired from his position as director of a public library in Rome. Gatti also asserts that the log records real estate show that in June last Starnone purchased an apartment in Rome from 235 square metres, with an estimated value between 1.5 and 2 million dollars.
The novels that comprise the series “Twocrumbs” have found a reading public more than enthusiastic, and some are even considered milestones of feminism. The power of the literary of the book derives in part from the anonymity of the author and the fans of Ferrante say that it is inconceivable that they were written by a man, as speculated in its time by some critics.
The success of the novels and the intrigue about the identity of its author were growing at the couple. Ferrante gave his reasons for choosing anonymity in an e-mail interview with The New York Times in 2014: “For me, the most important thing is to preserve a creative space that seems to be full of possibilities, even techniques – explained-. The absence of structural of the author affects the writing of forms that I want to keep exploring.”
Raja, born in Naples in 1953, he worked as a consultant at Edizioni E/O, a label that also published her Italian translations of Christa Wolf, whose books are narrated by female characters complex. Gatti revealed another detail of the wide-ranging impact: the mother of the Raja came with his parents to Italy in 1937 to escape the nazis. The rest of the family died in the Holocaust.
But the genesis of the novels of Ferrante remains a mystery that the financial records may not elucidate. What is Raja the only author of the books of Ferrante? Or are the fruit of a collaborative work with Starnone, as speculated by some literary critics?
Starnone appeared in the research in 2005, when the critic Luigi Galella detected similarities between the first novel, Ferrante, The love annoying (1992), and the novel Starnone Via Gemito (Street Cry), 2000. Both take place in Naples, are narrated by children culpable of parents, painters who stick to their wives, seamstresses, and contain descriptions with similarities.
But since last year the literary critics have begun to insist on the name of Raja, because of his years translating the work of Wolf and other authors of feminist German. The novels of Ferrante addressed the subject of the power of authorship, as well as the emotional risks, and personal at writers who decide to extract material from his family history to his novels. One of the central topics of the work of the Wolf is the fear that to write about a certain person is a way to kill her, as the Raja explained last year in an interview. Wolf died in 2011. The first installment of Two friends appeared in 2012. In an essay of 2015, Rebecca Falkoff, New York University, traced the similarities between the novels of Ferrante and the Wolf. “When I read about Raja wrote Falkoff,” the more convinced I am that it is Elena Ferrante.”
Translation of Jaime Arrambide
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