Since bursting onto the scene nearly two decades ago with her first novel about her experience working in a call center, a novel that later inspired a popular film, Michela Murgia had become a public persona — and a lightning rod for political debate in Italy. A novelist, intellectual and civil rights campaigner, she was an outspoken critic of the country’s rightward shift at a time when its left-wing parties appeared to have lost their voice, and a feminist and civil rights champion urging acceptance of nontraditional family configurations in a nation in which the governing parties have promoted a more conservative vision. Before she died, on Thursday at age 51, she told her friends that she wanted her funeral to be open to everyone. Many hundreds heeded her invitation. They came from all walks of life — a retired banker, a hotel employee, a translator, students — to honor “a symbol of freedom and feminism whose words should be transformed into action,” said Maria Luisa Celani, who works in the arts and was one of many gathered outside the Basilica of Santa Maria in Montesanto, known as “the church of the artists,” in Rome’s central Piazza del Popolo, for the funeral.

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Persons: Michela Murgia, —, “, ”, Maria Luisa Celani Organizations: Piazza del Popolo Locations: Italy, Santa Maria, Montesanto, Rome’s, Piazza del