<p><strong>18M copies of Elena Ferrante''s books sold worldwide</strong></p><p><strong></strong>¿This is my last column, after a year that has scared and inspired me.¿<br><br>With these words, Elena Ferrante, the bestselling author of <em>My Brilliant Friend</em>, bid farewell to her year-long collaboration with the <em>Guardian</em>. For a full year she penned short pieces, the subjects of which were suggested by editors at the <em>Guardian</em>, turning the writing process into a kind of prolonged interlocution; the subjects ranged from first love to climate change, from enmity among women to the adaptation of her novels to film and TV. As she said in her final column: ¿I have written as an author of novels, taking on matters that are important to me and that¿if I have the will and the time¿I¿d like to develop within real narrative mechanisms.¿<br><br>Here, then, are the seeds of possible future novels, the ruminations of an internationally beloved author, and the abiding preoccupati