"The email disguised itself in the form of a message that would brighten any author's day if it came from a real person, let alone from one of the most famous and famously mysterious writers in the world. But it also contained specific phrases I recognized from published descriptions of my book, such as from my publisher's site, resulting in a feverish collage of words that collapsed upon closer viewing."
"I realized this a few seconds after I received the email, in part because there is no world in which the real Elena Ferrante-the world-renowned pseudonymous author whose book, My Brilliant Friend, was voted the best book of the 21st century by The New York Times -would email someone like me. I felt embarrassed to be so deluded, regretting the one second of my life in which I imagined it possible."
The author received a deceptive email claiming to be from Elena Ferrante, the pseudonymous author of My Brilliant Friend. Initially thrilled at the possibility of contact from the renowned writer, the author quickly recognized the email as fraudulent. The message, while coherent and seemingly kind, contained specific phrases extracted from published descriptions of the author's own book, creating an uncanny collage of words. Curious about the scammer's intentions, the author responded and received a reply within fifteen minutes, accompanied by a profile picture of Anita Raja, the Italian translator whom journalist Claudio Gatti had allegedly identified as Ferrante's true identity in The New York Review of Books.
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