Incidental Inventions

By Elena Ferrante and Andrea Uncini

18M copies of Elena Ferrante's books sold worldwide

“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 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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Europa Editions
• Release date: Nov 21, 2019
• ISBN: 9781787702011

Elena Ferrante

Elena Ferrante is the author of The Days of Abandonment (Europa, 2005), Troubling Love (Europa, 2006), and The Lost Daughter (Europa, 2008), now a film directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal and starring Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, and Jessie Buckley. She is also the author of Incidental Inventions(Europa, 2019), illustrated by Andrea Ucini; Frantumaglia: A Writer’s Journey (Europa, 2016); and a children’s picture book illustrated by Mara Cerri, The Beach at Night (Europa, 2016). The four volumes known as the “Neapolitan novels” (My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, and The Story of the Lost Child) were published by Europa Editions in English between 2012 and 2015. My Brilliant Friend, the HBO series directed by Saverio Costanzo, premiered in 2018 and is in its third season. Ferrante’s most recent novel is the instant New York Times bestseller, The Lying Life of Adults (Europa, 2020).

Reviews for Incidental Inventions

[jphamilton-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Elena Ferrante is the international best-selling author of My Brilliant Friend (also a popular HBO series), the three other volumes of the The Neapolitan Novels, as well as several other titles. The editors of the Guardian approached her to write a year’s worth of weekly articles in 2018, and this book brings all those fascinating essays together in a gorgeous gift edition. Each piece stands on its own, is her response to a weekly question from those editors, and is headed by some striking artwork by the Italian illustrator Andrea Ucini. Her topics range from the personal ruminations of a successful writer dealing with her fame and her fans, to working on her craft, the world issues of politics and climate change, what it is to be a women in these times, and the subjects of pregnancy, loneliness, addictions, insomnia, fears, love, and much more. Fifty-two weeks yielded fifty-two columns, and fifty-two topics. Her essays are always well thought out, intelligent, and she expresses herself with a candor that I found human and honest. She reveals her feelings and while many of the pieces relate nicely with each other, they don’t need each other. I appreciated the smart, direct nature of how she relates to her topics. This was a fine collection. This slim hardcover book contains some nice quality paper and features the inventive illustrations of Andrea Ucini. He’s an Italian illustrator who now lives in Denmark. His artwork reminds me of Yan Nascimbene, a French/Italian artist and book illustrator who worked in watercolors. Vicky and I got to know him when he lived in Davis for a number of years. One of his paintings presently hangs on the wall two feet away from me. Ucini has the same palette of colors, but his art seems to be more imaginative and simpler. The book is a great example of the blending of writing with related artwork. It has a very special quality to it.

[randymetcalfe · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Over the course of a year, Elena Ferrante produced a weekly column for the Guardian newspaper in the UK. She notes that this was her first such undertaking and that it came with its own set of anxieties. Would she be able to produce these pieces on time? Would she have anything interesting to say? Would they find readers? All of her questions have been answered in the positive. Collected together here, they present a writer self-conscious and self-reflective, anxious but also determined. And if there are no astounding insights or startling conclusions, there are at least consistent workmanly reflections, both thoughtful and occasionally thought-provoking.The topics that Ferrante tackles range from typical concerns of the professional writer, to the more particular concerns of a woman writer. Even punctuation matters, with entries on the exclamation point and on ellipses. There are also many entries that fall under the rubric of self-reflection. And again, about various experiences growing up. But what most typifies these inventions is their consistency of tone. Ferrante is never frivolous. Nor is she arch. She considers and reconsiders matters and doesn’t overreach. It would not be out of place to call such writing wise.Easily recommended.