"Nothing comparable has ever been published before," declared The Guardian in 2014 about the Neapolitan novels. Set against the backdrop of a Naples that is both seductive and dangerous, Elena Ferrante tells the story of a lifelong friendship between two women with unparalleled honesty and brilliance. The Story of the Lost Child is the final volume of the radiant saga of two women – the brilliant, book-loving Elena and the fiery, untamed Lila. Both are now adults, with husbands, lovers, aging parents, and children. Their friendship has been the gravitational center of their lives. Both women struggled to escape the neighborhood where they grew up – a prison of conformity, violence, and untouchable taboos. Elena married, moved to Florence, started a family, and published several well-received books. In this final novel, she has returned to Naples, as if following the mysterious magnetism of the city. Lila, on the other hand, could never free herself from the city of her birth. She has become a successful entrepreneur, yet her success brings her closer to the nepotism, chauvinism, and criminal violence that permeate the neighborhood. The proximity to the world she has always rejected only highlights her role as an unrecognized leader. For Lila is unstoppable, unpredictable, unforgettable. The four volumes of this series form a long remarkable story that readers will return to time and again, and each return will bring new revelations.