Incidental Inventions

<p>"This is my last column, after a year that has scared and inspired me."</p> <p>With these words, Elena Ferrante, the bestselling author of <em>My Brilliant Friend</em>, bid farewell to her year-long collaboration with the <em>Guardian</em>. For a full year she penned short pieces, the subjects of which were suggested by editors at the <em>Guardian</em>, 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&mdash;if I have the will and the time&mdash;I'd like to develop within real narrative mechanisms."<br /> <br /> 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" (<em>The New York Times</em>). Gathered together for the first time and accompanied by an entirely new introduction written by Elena Ferrante and by Andrea Ucini's intelligent, witty, and beautiful illustrations, this is a must for all Ferrante fans.</p>