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I think our sexuality is all still to be recounted and that, especially in this context, the rich male literary tradition constitutes a huge obstacle [...] We, all of us women, need to build a genealogy of our own, one that will embolden us, define us, allow us to see ourselves outside the tradition through which men have viewed, represented, evaluated, and catalogued us - for millennia. Theirs is a potent tradition, rich with splendid works, but one which has excluded much, too much, of what is ours. To narrate thoroughly, freely - even provocatively - our own "more than this" is important: it contributes to the drawing of a map of what we are or what we want to be.

Already a rabid fan of The Neapolitan Quartet, this book has cemented my adoration of, and intellectual respect for, Ferrante. Consisting of letters, emails, interviews and fragments of writing, it gives us unparalleled access to Ferrante's mind as she opens up about her writing, her thinking, her politics and her literary influences as she discusses her work and her books.

An informed feminist who admits she's been influenced by Irigaray and Butler, as well as by the classical tradition of abandoned (in all sense of that word) women from Ariadne and Medea to Dido who she discusses at length, Ferrante is articulate, passionate and a true writer's writer - she takes her calling seriously ('a book should push the reader to confront himself (sic) and the world',p.323), working to write with authenticity, truth and sincerity, not to push out books to be published at regular intervals. Indeed, those of us who came to her via My Brilliant Friend may well be surprised to find this book covering a period from 1991 through to 2016.

Because so much of this is based on written interviews with various journals and newspapers, there is inevitably an overlap in questions asked, especially about Ferrante's anonymity and refusal to insert herself between her books and her readership ('I believe that books, once they are written, have no need of their authors', p.15) and her very patience is a marked characteristic of her seriousness and intent.

We also, though, gain a fascinating insight into her view of literature in a broad sense, and her insights into her writing of the startling, subtle, complicated relationship between her two great protagonists, Lina and Elena.

One of the things that makes Ferrante outstanding today is the way she has effortlessly bridged the space between 'literary' and 'popular' fiction and readers - her books speak to us on a human (dare I say gendered?) level while also placing themselves into a tradition that is both familiar and yet startlingly unfamiliar given its emphasis on female friendship, a relationship which ultimately supersedes all other bonds in her quartet.

This is a book which is rewarding for fans, but also for anyone working on feminist literature, gender and writing and women's writing.