Frantumaglia contains 20 years of letters to her publishers, interviews and essays written by Italian writer Elena Ferrante.

The title of the book is derived from an expression used by Ferrante's mother, which means a “jumble of fragments,”, that jumped around and destroyed her, and was used to express “a malaise that could not be defined otherwise and that hinted at a crowded, heterogeneous mix of things in her head, like rubbles floating on a brain’s muddy waters”.

"[3] The book became especially popular for the possibility of knowing more about the mysterious writer, who uses only a pseudonym and who has never revealed her identity, in spite of decades of speculation.

Victor Zarour Zarzar has claimed that "Frantumaglia might well be her most fascinating text: it is both fiction incarnate and a work of self-exegesis.

"[1] They have also praised how Ferrante can expose the mechanism behind her beloved characters: "Heroines who observe themselves vigilantly, though at times they break down and can’t; mothers; daughters and their troublesome porous, ever changing bodies; children; female friends and the vagaries of love – these are Ferrante’s most compelling subjects.