In her celebrated Neapolitan novels, Ferrante creates an enduring portrait of a “splendid and shadowy” female friendship. The fourth and final book in the series begins in 1976, when her narrator, Elena, who has just left her husband, returns to Naples from Florence. She has two daughters, a married lover, and several successful books. She tries to avoid her longtime best friend Lila. “But it wasn’t easy. She almost immediately tried to re-enter my life by force, and I ignored her, tolerated her, endured her.” Complications abound. This concluding volume, translated into English by Ann Goldstein, proves, once again, as Ferrante puts it: “Every intense relationship between human beings is full of traps.” (Credit: Europa Editions)
