The Story of the Lost Child
The Story of the Lost Child is the fourth and final novel in Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels series, concluding the lifelong friendship between Elena Greco (Lenù) and Raffaella Cerullo (Lila) as they navigate adulthood, motherhood, and their complex relationship in Naples. The book follows the women into middle age, dealing with their divergent paths—Lenù as a successful author and Lila as an entrepreneur entangled in the neighborhood's criminal world—while exploring themes of loss, identity, and the enduring, often fraught, bond between them, culminating in the literal disappearance of Lila's young daughter, Tina.
The "stunning conclusion" to the bestselling saga of the fierce lifelong bond between two women, from a gritty Naples childhood through old age ( Publishers Weekly, starred review).
One of the New York Times's 100 Best Books of the 21st Century
The Story of the Lost Child concludes the dazzling saga of two women, the brilliant, bookish Elena and the fiery, uncontainable Lila, who first met amid the shambles of postwar Italy. In this book, life's great discoveries have been made; its vagaries and losses have been suffered. Through it all, the women's friendship remains the gravitational center of their lives.
Both women once fought to escape the neighborhood in which they grew up. Elena married, moved to Florence, started a family, and published several well-received books. But now, she has returned to Naples to be with the man she has always loved. Lila, on the other hand, never succeeded in freeing herself from Naples. She has become a successful entrepreneur, but her success draws her into closer proximity with the nepotism, chauvinism, and criminal violence that infect her neighborhood. Yet, somehow, this proximity to a world she has always rejected only brings her role as unacknowledged leader of that world into relief.
"Lila is a magnificent character." — The Atlantic
"Everyone should read anything with Ferrante's name on it." — The Boston Globe