The university professor, born in 1946, says she is �shy and reserved�, so �how could I be such an important writer?�. As far as her personality goes, she is clearly telling the truth: were it not for her extreme reserve, her reputation would go well beyond the academic world. She teaches Contemporary History (currently at Naples’ Federico II University and previously at the city’s Orientale University), and is a leading authority on Neapolitan social history and the Camorra. She would be perfectly qualified to speak outside the university world, but instead of seeking the limelight, has tried to avoid it.

She says she has only read the first book in the My Brilliant Friend series, and adds that �actually, I’m now expecting the “Corriere” to give me copies of the others, to make up for all the telephone calls and requests for interviews I have received because of them�. She continues to smile, and there is no resentment in her words; if anything, she seems wryly amused. She makes a mistake, however, when she says that the book she has read was Ferrante’s first, since in fact it was only the first episode in the tetralogy, rather than the first book published by the novelist. Either way, she clearly enjoyed it: �I loved the Neapolitan touches, the relationship between the two women, and the descriptions of the suburbs that I have no direct experience of, despite my studies on Naples�.

As for the research carried out by Santagata, she confirms most of the similarities he finds between her own experiences and those of the book’s main character. However, she disputes his conclusions. In the second book, The Story of a New Name, for example, the protagonist Elena Greco goes to study at the Scuola Normale in the mid-sixties, just like Marcella Marmo, who was a student there in 1964/65. Then there is Palazzo Timpano, the college for women, which Normale students (and Ferrante in the book) simply call �il Timpano�: �I lived there, of course. And until a few years ago it was one of my recurring dreams�. There is also the fascination, although nothing more, with Adriano Sofri: �He made me shy, as did Franco Piperno, who I also met back then�. Finally, there is her departure from Pisa, after failing an exam (Armando Saitta, at the time Professor of Modern History, �did not like southerners�), and her decision not to apply to be readmitted in the second year.

In 1966, Marcella Marmo returned to Naples, where she would graduate with a dissertation supervised by Professor Giuseppe Galasso. She would later marry Guido Sacerdoti, whom she had known since before university, when she frequented the left-wing Nuova Resistenza group and the youth section of the Italian Communist Party. Nephew of Carlo Levi, the allergist and renowned painter, Sacerdoti died in 2013. Organizing his shows, and keeping his work alive is the only activity Marcella Marmo says she is involved in outside the university. She speaks of him as an adoring wife and passionate admirer, but then, suddenly, goes back to speaking about her time in Pisa: �In any case, I was not the only Neapolitan woman at the Normale. Another girl arrived after me. I don’t remember her name, since we didn’t become friends, but I’m sure she was Neapolitan. Maybe she was Elena Ferrante. Or it could be Silvio Perrella� (who, when called by the �Corriere�, preferred not to comment).

�The other Neapolitan is Maria Mercogliano� says Santagata, referring to the Normale yearbook. According to the records there were no other women students from Naples at the university at the time,�but she cannot be Elena Ferrante�. The scholar adds that �Mercogliano was a student at the Scuola Normale in 1966/67, the same year I also matriculated. If she were the author of My Brilliant Friend, her failure to mention events such as the flooding of the Arno on 4 November 1966, and the students’ occupation of the university in February 1967, in at least a couple of passages, would be inexplicable. In fact, according to my reconstruction, Ferrante was in Pisa before 1966�.

Laura Goggi Carotti, who was also a Normale student at the time, met both Marcella Mamo and Maria Mercogliano (at that time, fewer than ten students a year were admitted and, like today, they lived together in college, and inevitably knew almost everything about each other). �Marcella and I arrived in 1964�, Goggi Carotti recalls. �We both studied Literature, since there was no degree course in History at the time, and we revised for various exams together. She had a cheerful, sunny disposition, and I remember her laugh. But she was a bit different from the rest of us, more mature. She was a follower of the communist Pietro Ingrao, and had been politically active in Naples. Back in her native city, of which she constantly spoke, she had a boyfriend. It was as if she never felt completely at home in Pisa�.

Above all because of the interests she revealed in that year together in Tuscany, Laura Goggi Carotti believes Marcella Marmo is more likely than Maria Mercogliano to be Elena Ferrante. �Mercogliano, infact, became an expert in Italian literature and an art critic�, she explains, �not an historian�. She also adds a detail related to the protagonist of the series of novels, Elena Greco: �At the time, Mercogliano was a pretty brunette, while Marmo was stockier -, her fellow student fondly recalls -. Hers was a beauty that needed time to develop, like that of the main character in My Brilliant Friend�.

Today, Marcella Marmo is close to retirement. Her house is full of pictures, books, and her students’ degree dissertations. One room is used as an office by her son Carlo, a doctor like his father (her daughter Arianna, meanwhile, is a university researcher). �Just look�, says Carlo calmly when his mother shows him the newspaper article which says that she might be the mysterious writer, �and tell them you’re not Elena Ferrante�. He smiles, before taking his leave and walking off.

(English translation by Simon Tanner www.simontanner.com)