This also will be the summer of Elena Ferrante. The final novel in her Neapolitan series, “The Story of the Lost Child,” will arrive in readers’ hands around Labor Day (which gives those who haven’t discovered this author just enough time to read through the three earlier books in the series.)
Ferrante’s story is even more piquant than that of Harper Lee; nobody knows precisely who she is. The reclusive author has refused to promote her books, will provide only written answers to questions from journalists, won’t accept awards or attend writer’s conferences. Her books, she argues, should speak for themselves. That ruthless preservation of her anonymity, combined with Ferrante’s elegant prose style and her almost confessional approach to storytelling, have made her a cult favorite; the line to acquire one of 200 advance copies of “The Story of the Lost Child” from her publishers, Europa, at BookExpo last month rivaled those for, say, Gloria Steinem — and many went away disappointed.
