Mystery surrounding true identity of best-selling author Elena Ferrante may have been solved, but was her unmasking ethical?

One of literature’s most talked-about mysteries appeared to have been cracked with the unmasking of the identity of the Italian publishing sensation Elena Ferrante.

In its wake, a literary row erupted over journalistic ethics and writers’ right to protect their identities and the personal back stories that may, or may not, inform their work.

Claudio Gatti, an Italian investigative journalist, says he has seen evidence of royalty payments that establish that Ferrante is a pen name for Anita Raja, a Rome-based translator who is married to a well-known novelist.

Reacting angrily to Gatti’s revelation, Ferrante’s publisher did not deny his claim. Instead it railed against the perceived breach of the writer’s right to privacy.

“It is disgusting to see a great Italian author, loved and celebrated in our country and across the world, treated like a criminal,” Edizioni E/O said in a statement. “What higher public interest could the investigation led by Claudio Gatti have served?”