The idea of the lost child is a consistent motif. On a literal level, the titular lost child refers to Tina, Lila’s daughter who disappears on a day dedicated to her diffident friend Imma. The ambiguous word “lost” is appropriate for describing Tina’s absence, as there is no lasting rational descriptor for how she vanished, even as theories of kidnap and complete obliteration are considered. The word lost also allows the absent Tina to hover in a space between the dead and the living, as she leaves behind no material trace of her body. For Elena, who suspects that Lila named Tina after the precious doll that Lila threw into a cellar, the disappearance of the live Tina is connected to this first loss of something precious. Elena believes that “under the most insignificant coincidences expanses of quicksand lie hidden” (451). The disappearance of the doll Tina in the first novel is a prelude to the real girl’s absence in the final text.

While Tina is the literal lost child of the novel, the motif metaphorically refers to the loss of a child’s early potential. Tina’s loss is doubly painful for Lila because it encompasses the lost potential of other promising children, including herself and her son Gennaro.