“This is my last column, after a year that has scared and inspired me.”

With these words, Elena Ferrante, the bestselling author of My Brilliant Friend, bid farewell to her year-long collaboration with the Guardian. For a full year she penned short pieces, the subjects of which were suggested by editors at the Guardian, turning the writing process into a kind of prolonged interlocution; the subjects ranged from first love to climate change, from enmity among women to the adaptation of her novels to film and TV. As she said in her final column: “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.”

Here, then, are the seeds of possible future novels, the ruminations of an internationally beloved author, and the abiding preoccupations of a writer who has been called “one of the great novelists of our time” (the New York Times). Gathered together for the first time in a beautiful gift edition and accompanied by an entirely new introduction written by Elena Ferrante and Andrea Ucini’s intelligent, witty, and beautiful illustrations, this is a must for all Ferrante fans.


埃莱娜•费兰特是一个笔名，作者真实身份至今是谜。埃莱娜•费兰特1992年发表第一部长篇小说《烦人的爱》，1995年被意大利导演马里奥•马尔托内改编为同名电影；此后相继出版小说《被遗弃的日子》(2002)，与出版社的通信集《碎片》（2003），小说《暗处的女儿》（2006）以及儿童小说《夜晚的海滩》（2007）。

2011年至2014年，费兰特以每年一本的频率出版《我的天才女友》《新名字的故事》《离开的，留下的》和《失踪的孩子》，这四部情节相关的小说被称为“那不勒斯四部曲”。它们以史诗般的体例，描述了两个在那不勒斯穷困社区出生的女孩持续半个多世纪的友谊，尖锐又细腻地探讨了女性命运的复杂性和深度。

2015年，费兰特被《金融时报》评为“年度女性”。2016年，《时代》周刊将埃莱娜•费兰特选入“最具影响力的100人”。2017年3月，《我的天才女友》被改编...