Frantumaglia invites readers into Elena Ferrante’s workshop. The bestselling Italian author of My Brilliant Friend opens her desk drawers and offers readers a chance to sort through what they find there. 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 for memories, impressions, and fantasies. The result is a vibrant and intimate portrait of a writer at work.

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