蜜芽传媒

There is much speculation about the real person behind the pseudonym Elena Ferrante, particularly because the best selling Italian author of four novels making up the Neopolitan quartet has recently granted several interviews.

Now the Italian journalist Claudio Gatti says he has been able to identify the author of My Brilliant Friend and the rest of the Neapolitan books as a Rome-based translator called Anita Raya. His articles have provoked a furious reaction. Many writers feel that this is 'gutter journalism' and that to present it as investigative journalism undermines the term.

(Photo: A cyclist in Naples. Credit: Getty Images)