The Story of the Lost Child

Elena Ferrante · b. 1943 · Italy

Originally Storia della bambina perduta (Italian) · translated by Ann Goldstein

Why it matters

Lenù and Lila, now middle-aged mothers back in the same building, watch the friendship curdle toward its final catastrophe as a child vanishes without a trace. The Quartet's devastating close, answering the question posed by its own frame.

At a glance

The same direct prose, but demands recall of decades of accumulated plot and characters.