Incidental Inventions

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What to expect

Elena Ferrante is the bestselling author of My Brilliant Friend, now an HBO original series. Collected here for the first time are the seeds of future novels, the timely reflections of this internationally beloved storyteller, the abiding preoccupations of a writer who has been called “one of the great novelists of our time” (New York Times).

“This is my last column, after a year that has scared and inspired me … I have written as an author of novels, taking on matters that are important to me and that—if I have the will and the time—I’d like to develop within real narrative mechanisms.”

With these words, Elena Ferrante bid farewell to her year-long collaboration with the Guardian newspaper. For a full year, she wrote weekly articles, the subjects of which had been suggested by Guardian editors, making the writing process a sort of prolonged interlocution. The subjects ranged from first love to climate change, from enmity among women to the experience of seeing her novels adapted for film and TV.

Translated by Ann Goldstein, the acclaimed translator of Ferrante’s novels, this volume is a must for all curious readers.

Critics Review

“Both timely and deeply personal…this varied assembly of considerations is a portrait of an acclaimed storyteller’s bold and singular voice.”

Columbia Journal

“Fifty-one columns, short in length but long on wisdom, on topics ranging from pregnancy and daughters to lies and confessions. As with her fiction, Ferrante’s voice here is clear, eloquent, and powerful.”

Minneapolis Star-Tribune

“In prose that provokes and transforms, evoking wonder and tension in the most gratifying sense, these fragments of Ferrante ultimately cohere into a full, absorbing portrait of an enduring author.”

Library Journal (starred review)

“Narrator Hillary Huber takes on the persona of bestselling author Elena Ferrante for this collection…Huber keeps expression to a minimum, letting the words and ideas speak for themselves.”

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