Hello and Happy Monday!
Reading, reading, reading. My passion and I are always searching for some new literature. A couple of friends recommended the pseudonymous Italian author Elena Ferrante whose true identity is not known. One friend mentioned also that if I would ever read “My Brilliant Friend”, it would change my life forever. Pretty big claim, don’t you think? And in the meantime, nobody even knows who Elena Ferrante is. But does this matter? Recently, people try to desperately find out who the author is. Without any luck so far.
Rachel Donadia who wrote for The New York Times wrote that “Figuring out the identity of Ms. Ferrante, who has never been identified, has become one of the literary world’s favorite guessing games, and on Sunday Italy’s leading daily, Corriere della Sera, delivered its latest twist: Ms. Ferrante might be a professor in Naples named Marcella Marmo. Ms. Ferrante’s publisher, Edizioni E/O in Rome, swiftly denied the report, as it has every other stab at unmasking Ms. Ferrante over the years. “It’s nonsense,” said Sandra Ozzola Ferri, half of the husband-and-wife team that runs the publishing house. Ms. Marmo, a professor of contemporary history at Federico II University of Naples, also denied the assertion. “I’m not Elena Ferrante,” she said, in a telephone interview on Sunday.
I have never even heard of Ferrante before and I do consider myself a big reader. Guess what? I bought “My Brilliant Friend” for the Kindle and was blown away. I just could not put it down. I was sucked into this brilliant story of friendship, Italy, poverty, fear and love. I ordered the second book of the tetralogy and will start it tonight. [The fourth book “The Story of the Lost Child” not pictures above] I mean, honesty, this book was so good that I barely touched and thought about my favorite apps Luminosity, Instagram and Pinterest. It is so great to discover new authors who write well and get me hooked like this. With this plethora of books out there, this is actually pretty difficult. Doesn’t it seem that everybody writes a book these days? Okay, I include myself here while blushing slightly.
Have you read any of her books? What else are you reading these days?
Are you hooked? Get your copy here and read The New York Times article here. Enjoy!
