Wednesday, October 11, 2017 | 12:30pm - 1:30pm - Mechanics' Institute Library, 57 Post St., San Francisco CA 94104 - Free Admission. The wildly popular yet pseudonymous Italian author known as Elena Ferrante is best known for her four-volume Neapolitan Novels series, which follows two girls from Naples who attempt to create lives for themselves within a violent and stultifying culture.

Named one of Time magazine's most influential people of 2016, Ferrante now sees her books increasingly adapted for film and television. Writer and Professor of Comparative Literature Sara Marinelli speaks on Ferrante's narrative world and cultural relevance.

Born and raised in Naples, Italy, Sara Marinelli is a writer, translator, and educator based in San Francisco. Her writing appears in Blue Mesa Review, New American Writing, and many Italian publications. She teaches Comparative Literature at the University of San Francisco and Humanities at San Francisco State University.

The event is part of the 2017 Litquake literary festival.