Synopsis:
For fans of The Ministry of Time and The Midnight Library, a sweeping, unforgettable novel following two remarkable women moving between postwar and Cold War-era America and the mysterious time space, a library filled with books containing the memories of those who bore witness to history.
Enter the time space, a soaring library filled with books containing the memories of those who have passed and accessed only by specially made watches once passed from father to son—but mostly now in government hands. This is where eleven-year-old Lisavet Levy finds herself trapped in 1938, waiting for her watchmaker father to return for her. When he doesn’t, she grows up among the books and specters, able to see the world only by sifting through the memories of those who came before her. As she realizes that government agents are entering the time space to destroy books and maintain their preferred version of history, she sets about saving these scraps in her own volume of memories. Until the appearance of an American spy named Ernest Duquesne in 1949 offers her a glimpse of the world she left behind, setting her on a course to change history and possibly the time space itself.
In 1965, sixteen-year-old Amelia Duquesne is mourning the disappearance of her uncle Ernest when an enigmatic CIA agent approaches her to enlist her help in tracking down a book of memories her uncle had once sought. But when Amelia visits the time space for the first time, she realizes that the past—and the truth—might not be as linear as she’d like to believe.
The Book of Lost Hours explores time, memory, and what we sacrifice to protect those we love.
Review:
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — I’m a sucker for books about books. Libraries and bookshops, writers and editors…shoot, you could probably hand me a thriller about the Oxford Comma and I’d be down to read it. With that in mind, I found The Book of Lost Hours an enchanting and taut romantic adventure set against the backdrops of World War II and the Cold War. I was fully into the debut from author Hayley Gelfuso and found myself wrapped up in the story from beginning to end.
Thanks to dual timelines that tell parallel-but-connected stories, Gelfuso weaves an enchanting tale with love at the core. By centering the stories in the days of World War II and the height of McCarthyism during the Cold War, the author cleverly uses the general knowledge of history inherent in her audience to ground the narrative. The chaos of the “real” world is actually tamed by stillness of the “Time Space” that Lisavet finds herself in as an 11-year-old girl and helps to paint a picture of fascism and authoritarianism trying to erase history — an analogy that is ever-present in our world today.
I found the main characters to be wonderful and tragic. Lisavet’s story is a constant throughout, even though we may not always realize it. Her story from the late-1930s Germany combined with the addition of an American spy named Ernest Duquesne a little over a decade later provided the real heart to this work. Then, the addition of Amelia right in the middle of the 1960s as a young woman adds mystery and depth to an already moving story.
Gelfuso used the rules (or sometimes the lack thereof) of her created alternate dimension of the “Time Space” to her advantage. While the worldbuilding of the time space wasn’t totally locked in for me, the timelessness of it and the dangers inside were clear enough as our characters progressed.
Ultimately I really enjoyed my time with The Book of Lost Hours. The characters stood out and the plot moved at a fantastic pace while navigating the complexities of dual timelines. If you like your romance with a mid-century fantasy backdrop, this is the perfect book for you.
Thank you to Atria Books for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
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