Bustle 17 Of September 2015's Best Books: #1 THE STORY OF THE LOST CHILD

This final installment of Elena Ferrante's acclaimed Neopolitan series follows Elena and Lila, the friends around whose fierce but evolving bond the four books revolves, as they navigate the cusp of middle and old age. Elena, a successful novelist who escaped the violent Naples of her childhood to forge a new life in Florence, returns to her ancestral home; and Lila, who stayed in Naples, experiences its inherently corrupted society every day, not without bitterness either for her city or for her absent friend. In true Ferrante fashion, in The Story of the Lost Child the secretive novelist masterfully reveals the complexities of female friendship, of striving for independence within a chauvinistic society, and of the emotional process of growing old.