INCIDENTAL INVENTIONS

“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 an article each week, the subjects of which had been suggested by Guardian editors, making the writing process a form of prolonged interlocution. The topics range from first love to climate change, from enmity among women to the experience of seeing her novels adapted for film and TV.