Book: The Book of Lost Hours
Author: Hayley Gelfuso
Publisher: Atria Books
Year: 2025
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “Nuremberg, 1938: Eleven-year-old Lisavet Levy is hidden by her father from approaching forces in a mysterious place called the time space, a library where all the memories of the past are stored inside of books. Trapped, she spends her adolescence walking through the memories of those who lived before. When she discovers that government spies are entering the time space to destroy volumes and maintain their preferred version of history, Lisavet sets about trying to salvage the past, creating her own book of lost memories.
Until one day in 1949, when she meets an American timekeeper named Ernest Duquesne, who offers her a chance at another life, setting in motion a series of events that puts her own existence – and that of the time space itself – in peril.
Boston, 1965: Amelia Duquesne is mourning the death of her uncle and guardian, Ernest, when she’s approached by Moira Donnelly, the head of the CIA’s highly secretive Temporal Reconnaissance Program. Moira tells her about the existence of the time space – accessed only by specially designed watches whose intricate mechanisms have been lost to history – and enlists her help in recovering a strange book her uncle had once sought. But when Amelia enters the time space, she discovers that her uncle may not have been the man she thought – and that the government may have another reason to bring her there.”

Review : Lisavet Levy lives in the Time Space. In the history of time, it seems that no one has ever simply lived in the Time Space – the place outside concrete reality where all memories live and are recorded, where souls who pass go to be placed into books, where our recollection of events are housed. And yet, for over a decade, Lisavet Levy lives within the Time Space. In a world where special watches and only a few select people may generate a doorway into such a sacred place, the governing bodies of countries all across the globe enter and tamper with the Time Space, effectively changing the way people view the world according, literally, to the victor. It’s within the Time Space that Lisavet Levy realizes government agents and soldiers are entering her temporal reality and burning memories, literally destroying the memories of hundreds, if not thousands, of people. In the real world, as a reader, The Book of Lost Hours speaks, at least in part, to the dangers of propaganda and misinformation campaigns. And while we may be in a world without a literal Time Space, nearly one hundred years in the future, the threat of mis (and dis) information looms large. Gelfuso touches on a topic that is near and dear to many of our hearts with her stunning book, reminding us of the importance of preserving the memories of those who perhaps did not fare as well as the victor may have, as we know that indeed, history is written by the victor.

While The Book of Lost Hours is a chilling look into how governing bodies (presidents, say) go about changing and challenging the agreed upon version of events, it is at it’s core a hauntingly beautiful love story that spans not just years and countries, but memories and timelines as well. Lisavet meets Ernest Duquesne in the Time Space and while they court each other in the memories of others, Lisavet begins to change Ernest’s mind about burning and changing the memories of those he’s sent into the Time Space to discard. **Spoilers Ahead** And though Lisavet, as a form of self preservation, must eventually erase all memory of herself and their love from Ernest’s mind, the seed she planted in his mind takes root. By the year 1965, there’s a full-blown revolution occurring within the CIA, even spanning across the globe; soldier’s preserving memories they’d been sent to destroy, thwarting the notion that memories and history must be warped to fit a specific turn of events. Through sheer bad luck and, perhaps, inevitability, Lisavet finds herself captured and under the control of the director of the CIA, Jack, a man who sees her merely as an asset and something to be used to further bolster the American agenda within a growing Cold War. It is outside the Time Space that Lisavet and Ernest meet once again, and again find themselves falling in love – though one of them remembers the past while the other doesn’t.

Jumping between the perspective of Lisavet and Amelia, Ernest’s niece, we piece Lisavet’s story together, from her time within the Time Space to her time spent in the real, concrete world. With several twists and turns that, while easy to spot, don’t detract from the storyline, we navigate a growing divide in the external world and a literal growing chasm in the Time Space, torn apart by Amelia’s mere presence in the world. With just a hint of string theory and quantum physics, The Book of Lost Hours presents a framework whereby we might imagine memories as a collectively agreed upon idea rather than a set in stone foundation of events that well and truly happened. It’s a lot to chew on and offers a unique perspective into the idea of time, memories, and consciousness – all while addressing the very real implications of disinformation. With parallels to our own world, it’s hard to miss the roadsigns. If we aren’t careful, we’ll wrap ourselves up so tightly in a web of lies we’ll never be able to find our way back to the truth again – if we haven’t already.

Advice : This book comes out tomorrow (8/12)!! I think you should grab it. If you enjoy Outlander, time travel of any kind, libraries, and a little bit of science fiction, I think you’ll really love this one. If you’re not interested in a love story, or don’t like books, well, this is probably not for you and what are you even doing on my blog in the first place?