Ever since her first novel, Troubling Love, was published in 1992, nobody has known the true identity of bestselling Italian author Elena Ferrante.

The name printed on the cover of her books was a pseudonym, and the author made it clear that she had no interest in revealing who she really was. With the 2011 release of My Brilliant Friend, the first of her Neapolitan Novels – a four-book series about two girls growing up amid the grim violence of Naples – Ferrante’s literary star began to rise. But even as her novels were translated into multiple languages and interest in Ferrante’s identity increased, she held on staunchly to her anonymity.

Ferrante has been forthright about her reasons for wanting to write anonymously. Dismissive of the cult of literary celebrity, she does not believe that a writer’s identity should affect readers’ interpretation or enjoyment of a novel. In an email interview with The Gentlewoman earlier this year, she listed her reasons for writing under a pseudonym.

“The wish to remove oneself from all forms of social pressure or obligation. Not to feel tied down to what could become one’s public image. To concentrate exclusively and with complete freedom on writing and its strategies,” she wrote.

Readers respond furiously to ‘unmasking’ of author Elena Ferrante