The Story of the Lost Child - Book Four of the Neapolitan Novels - A novel about maturity and old age

Aug 25, 2026

Uploaded by Sage

A fictional account by Elena Ferrante continues in the fourth book of the Neapolitan Novels, tracking the emotional lives of characters as they move beyond youth into maturity and old age. Translated by Ann Goldstein, the narrative centers on intimate psychological intensity and the uneasy, enduring bonds shaped by poverty, neighborhood pressures, and historical change. Contemporary acclaim highlights the novels’ relentless honesty, incisive interior dialogue, and the powerful interplay between domestic life and larger social forces.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryStory & Novel

FormatPDF

Pages492

Reading Time12 h 38 min

AccessFree to download

Praise for Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels

Europa Editions 214 West 29th St ., Suite 1003 New York NY 10001 [info@europaeditions.com](info@europaeditions.com) [www.europaeditions.com](www.europaeditions.com) This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Copyright © Edizioni E/O by 2015 First publication 2015 by Europa Editions Translation by Ann Goldstein Original Title: Storia della bambina perduta Translation copyright © 2015 by Europa Editions All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Cover Art by Emanuele Ragnisco [www.mekkanografici.com](www.mekkanografici.com) Cover photo © Cultura/Hybrid Images/Getty ISBN 9781609452964 Elena Ferrante THE STORY OF THE LOST CHILD BOOK FOUR OF THE NEAPOLITAN NOVELS Maturity, Old Age Translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein PRAISE FOR ELENA FERRANTE’S NEAPOLITAN NOVELS FROM THE UNITED STATES “Ferrante’s writing is so unencumbered, so natural, and yet so lovely, brazen, and flush. The constancy of detail and the pacing that zips and skips then slows to a real-time crawl have an almost psychic effect, bringing you deeply into synchronicity with the discomforts and urgency of the characters’ emotions. Ferrante is unlike other writers—not because she’s innovative, but rather because she’s unselfconscious and brutally, diligently honest.” —Minna Proctor, Bookforum “Everyone should read anything with Ferrante’s name on it.” —The Boston Globe “In these bold, gorgeous, relentless novels, Ferrante traces the deep connections between the political and the domestic. This is a new version of the way we live now—one we need, one told brilliantly, by a woman .” —Roxana Robinson, The New York Times Book Review “An intoxicatingly furious portrait of enmeshed friends Lila and Elena, bright and passionate girls from a raucous neighborhood in world-class Naples. Ferrante writes with such aggression and unnerving psychological insight about the messy complexity of female friendship that the real world can drop away when you’re reading her.” —Entertainment Weekly “Ferrante can do a woman’s interior dialogue like no one else, with a ferocity that is shockingly honest, unnervingly blunt.” —Booklist “Elena Ferrante’s gutsy and compulsively readable new novel, the first of a quartet, is a terrific entry point for Americans unfamiliar with the famously reclusive writer, whose go-for-broke tales of women’s shadowselves—those ambivalent mothers and seething divorcées too complex or unseemly for polite society (and most literary fiction, for that matter)—shimmer with Balzacian human detail and subtle psychological suspense. . . The Neapolitan novels offer one of the more nuanced portraits of feminine friendship in recent memory—from the make-up and break-up quarrels of young girls to the way in which we carefully define ourselves against each other as teens—Ferrante wisely balances her memoir-like emotional authenticity with a wry sociological understanding of a society on the verge of dramatic change.” —Megan O’Grady, Vogue “Elena Ferrante will blow you away.” —Alice Sebold “An engrossing, wildly original contemporary epic about the demonic power of human (and particularly female) creativity checked by the forces of history and society.” —The Los Angeles Review ofBooks “My Brilliant Friend is a sweeping family-centered epic that encompasses issues of loyalty, love, and a transforming Europe. This gorgeous novel should bring a host of new readers to one of Italy’s most acclaimed authors.” —The Barnes and Noble Review “[Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels] don’t merely offer a teeming vision of working-class Naples, with its cobblers and professors, communists and mobbed-up businessmen, womanizing poets and downtrodden wives; they present one of modern fiction’s richest portraits of a friendship.” —John Powers,“Fresh Air”, NPR “Ferrante tackles girlhood and friendship w

FAQs

What is the relationship between The Story of the Lost Child and the Neapolitan Novels?

It is Book Four of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels.

Who translated the book into English?

Ann Goldstein translated the novel from Italian.

What themes are emphasized in the praise excerpt?

The excerpt highlights intense psychological insight, honest emotional detail, and connections between political and domestic life, including feminine creativity and friendship.

Aug 25, 2026

Uploaded by Sage