How to read this list
Rank
Position in the Top 74, sorted by audience size from largest to smallest. Updated weekly.
Audience size
Estimated number of unique people in Italy who actively engage with this audience, derived from anonymized search-behavior signals.
Country share
Share of the global audience that is active in Italy. A higher value means the audience is more locally concentrated here.
Avg age
Average age in years across the people who engage with this audience in Italy, derived from anonymized search-behavior signals. A dash means demographic data is not yet available.
Female share
Share of women among the people who engage with this audience in Italy. 50% is gender-balanced; values above mean female-skewed, below mean male-skewed.
Ranking
| Rank | Audience | Audience size | Country share | Avg age | Female share | Subtype |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Elena Ferrante |
265k | 16.4% | 47.3 | 68.7% | Novelist |
| 2 |  Marguerite Yourcenar |
62k | 18.9% | 43.5 | 100.0% | Novelist |
| 3 |  Jonathan Safran Foer |
49k | 28.7% | 51.7 | 45.1% | Novelist |
| 4 |  Raymond Chandler |
35k | 7.6% | 45.1 | 73.4% | Novelist |
| 5 |  Herman Melville |
29k | 4.4% | 37.8 | 57.2% | Novelist |
| 6 |  Barbara Kingsolver |
26k | 6.1% | 50.3 | 84.3% | Novelist |
| 7 |  Martin Amis |
25k | 10.7% | 51.2 | 0.0% | Novelist |
| 8 |  Nathaniel Hawthorne |
16k | 2.8% | 36.1 | 100.0% | Novelist |
| 9 |  Siri Hustvedt |
13k | 6.1% | 55.2 | 85.0% | Novelist |
| 10 |  Roddy Doyle |
13k | 12.3% | 50.1 | 64.2% | Novelist |
| 11 |  Wendell Berry |
8.6k | 2.8% | 50.7 | 69.5% | Novelist |
| 12 |  Helen Fielding |
8.6k | 3.7% | 39.5 | 90.1% | Novelist |
| 13 |  J. G. Ballard |
7k | 7.3% | 34.0 | 32.0% | Novelist |
| 14 |  William Boyd (writer) |
6.9k | 2.8% | 52.2 | 41.4% | Novelist |
| 15 |  Stephen Chbosky |
6.1k | 2.6% | 36.6 | 42.7% | Novelist |
| 16 |  William Makepeace Thackeray |
5.4k | 4.3% | 35.2 | 47.4% | Novelist |
| 17 |  William Goldman |
5.2k | 5.5% | 36.9 | 64.7% | Novelist |
| 18 |  Emily Giffin |
4.6k | 3.3% | 42.0 | 73.2% | Novelist |
| 19 |  Tom Wolfe |
4.3k | 1.3% | 53.3 | 30.9% | Novelist |
| 20 |  Louis L'Amour |
4.3k | 1.4% | 49.4 | 27.4% | Novelist |
| 21 |  Benedict Wells |
4.1k | 1.1% | 42.7 | 62.9% | Novelist |
| 22 |  Christian Kracht |
3.5k | 1.7% | 42.9 | 63.1% | Novelist |
| 23 |  Alice Hoffman |
3.5k | 4.0% | 52.1 | 100.0% | Novelist |
| 24 |  Carl Hiaasen |
3k | 0.9% | 51.6 | 61.5% | Novelist |
| 25 |  Paul Theroux |
2.7k | 1.7% | 27.8 | 53.6% | Novelist |
Want the full picture for any of these audiences?
Open any profile to see psychographics, top regions, peer affinities and demographic splits — all derived from the same anonymized signals.
Frequently asked questions
How is this Top 74 list compiled?
Rascasse aggregates anonymized search-behavior signals across Italy and ranks each novelist by its estimated audience size. Only entries with at least 5 measured entities are listed.
How often is the list updated?
The ranking is refreshed weekly from the latest search-behavior data and re-published as a static page.
What is the largest novelist in Italy?
Elena Ferrante currently leads with an estimated audience of 265k people in Italy.