Elena Ferrante, whoever she is, will be a columnist for the Guardian

Elena Ferrante, the reclusive, internationally bestselling Italian novelist, will write a weekly column for the Guardian. The tricky part is “Elena Ferrante” isn’t a person — it’s a pen name.

The Guardian announced its columnist coup on Thursday. The news seems sure to come as a relief to Ferrante’s fans, many of whom worried that she would stop publishing after an Italian journalist claimed to reveal her identity in October 2016.

Ferrante is best known to English-speaking readers for her four-part “Neapolitan Novels” series, which focus on female friendships that some have speculated are based on real-life experiences. That’s why her anonymity seems especially important.

The series began in 2012 with “My Brilliant Friend” and culminated in 2015 with “The Story of the Lost Child,” which was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize.

Last March, HBO announced it would be adapting “My Brilliant Friend” as a limited series, to be co-written by Ferrante.

Ferrante’s column in the Guardian will appear in its Weekend magazine, the newspaper said, and will cover topics such as “childhood, aging, gender and, in her debut article, first love.” Like her novels, her columns will be translated into English by Ann Goldstein.

Guardian Weekend editor Melissa Denes said she was “thrilled” to have Ferrante join the newspaper’s stable of contributors. “Every week, she will be writing a personal piece, covering subjects from sex to aging to the things that make her laugh,” Denes said. “We can’t wait to see where she will take us.”