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Josie asked this question about The Story of the Lost Child (Neapolitan Novels, #4):
Do you think the Solaras took Tina?
Chananas Mmm it is very possible. Ferrante also gives a clue that the Solara's could have taken her. When Elena looks out of the window she mentions seeing Mar…moreMmm it is very possible. Ferrante also gives a clue that the Solara's could have taken her. When Elena looks out of the window she mentions seeing Marcello Solara. This must be around the time that Tina disappears. I think it is very interesting that it are those persons that Elena sees through the window.

However, when Tina is lost, Marcello helps looking for her. He looks for her till late in the evening. Would he help looking if he would be involved? Maybe as a cover-up? But on the other hand, why would he want to cover it up if it is there plan to destroy Lila? Would he really just help looking to cover up his involvement?
Maybe he just really cared... Even a vicious criminal can care about a small child...It is not because you hate someone that you also feel indifference towards a small child...And his hate for Lila was not as bad as the hate his brother felt for her in this book...And everyone knows he hated Lila, so would they thought it suspicious that he helped looking for her? Does this mean that his concern was genuine? And later in the novel the Solare clan organizes much of the search. So maybe they just help looking in order to clear their name.

I think that if the Solara's would have taken her as a way to take revenge on Lila, they would just have killed her and left her corpse somewhere. Because that would have destroyed Lila enough.
However, the mentioning of seeing the Solara's at the time of Tina disappearance seems significant. Otherwise it would have been to trivial to mention. And they wanted to destroy her. Nothing hurts someone as much as losing a child, nothing hurts as much as not being able to have closure...I was the must horrible thing they could have done to her.
So I really don't know... I hope they did not, and I hope they did so there is some closure.

Napels was a corrupt city during that time, with a lot of criminal activity. It could have been someone or some group trying to take revenge on Elena (or Nino).
It could have been Nadia, but I doubt it. Would she be capable of something so utterly cruel?
The truck also seems possible. If a lot of eye witnesses say the say the girl being hit or being taken by a truck, maybe there is truth in it. The driver did not stop they said. He did not even try stopping. Maybe the driver did it deliberately. Maybe he was hired by someone. The burned truck can be the same truck and burning it could have been a way of destroying evidence.

Maybe Ferrante does not know either. Maybe the story is based on true events, and in real life the mystery was also never resolved. Or maybe she want us to feel Lila's pain. The pain of not being able to know. (less)
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The Story of the Lost Child
by Elena Ferrante
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