The controversy unleashed by the revelation of the identity of the successful writer Italian Elena Ferrante – BBC World

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Image caption Who is Elena Ferrante? His literary success is due, in good measure, the mystery surrounding his identity.

For some it was the greatest mystery of modern literature: who is the writer (or writer (or writers) Elena Ferrante?

This Sunday, the question was unveiled.

The Italian journalist Claudio Gatti released the identity of the writer anonymous in the magazine The New York Review of Books, generating a debate about privacy.

According to the investigation of Gatti, behind the pseudonym Elena Ferrante and successes of publishers such as the saga “Novels neapolitan” is Italian translator Anita Raja.

In an interview with BBC, the journalist said that “millions of readers buy the books” of Ferrante and that they had “the right to know something about the person who created the works”.

And he added that it was “inevitable” that this revelation came: “I did It because she is a public figure notorious“.

Image caption The four novels of Ferrante that make up the saga “Novels neapolitan” were published between 2011 and 2014.

After 24 years of mystery

The first novel in Ferrante, “love is annoying”, was published in 1992. At that time we knew the only personal data that is known of it: that he was born in Naples.

But his international fame came only in 2011 with the publication of “the friend of super”, the first book of the tetralogy “Novels neapolitan”.

His novels, published in more than 40 countries, have topped 4 million copies sold all over the world.

And, as expected, along with the international consecration, the mystery of his identity grew.

At the beginning of this year, “The lost girl”, the fourth and last novel in his famous series, was nominated for the prestigious literary award Man Booker Prize. On the site of the same, reported: “Elena Ferrante was born in Naples. This is all we know of her.”

Image copyright Edizioni E/O

Image caption The editor Ferrante, Sandro Ferri, said after the controversial publication of the identity of the writer: “we Believe that this kind of journalism is disgusting”.

As reported by Gatti, in the beginning Anita Raja was hired as a translator of German literature in Europe, the publisher whose branch Italian (Edizioni E/O) then published the novels of Ferrante.

while Europe was denied to the journalist that Raja is the novelist of naples, Gatti defends his discovery, based on the “dramatic increase” in his salary in recent years, which correspond with the success of Ferrante.

Journalism “disgusting,”

on Sunday afternoon, Sandro Ferri, the editor of Ferrante and one of the few people that knows his real identity, he criticized the article Gatti.

In an interview with the newspaper The Guardian, Ferri not disproved the discovery of the reporter, but said: “we Believe that this kind of journalism is disgusting,”.

Several writers of high-profile also criticized the decision of Gatti and the magazine publish the real name of the author.

Jojo Moyes, author of the novel “Me before you”, he wrote in his official Twitter account: “Maybe Elena Ferrante has very good reasons to write under a pseudonym. It is not our ‘right’ to know”.