Crime thriller set in AMSTERDAM
Novel set in time-space, Nuremberg and USA
24th September 2025
The Book of Lost Hours by Hayley Gelfuso, novel set in time-space, Nuremberg and USA.
The Book of Lost Hours by Hayley Gelfuso is a beautifully crafted blend of fantasy, history, romance and mystery. A wonderful escapist read, with strong themes to consider.
The book centres on two female characters, who are both youngsters when we first meet them. Lisavet Levy’s father, Ezekiel, is a Jewish watchmaker In Nuremberg, Germany in 1938. Ezekiel had been in touch with friends in America and had hoped to emigrate there to save his family from “the coming storm” of violence and oppression. When a mob attacks their home, Ezekiel fears that they have come because they are Jewish, or for his precious watch. He explains to Lisavet that the watch enables him to speak to Time. Fearing for her wellbeing, he leads her to a safe place called the time space, telling her to wait for him. She has no idea how long she will wait. There she meets a guide, whom she calls Azrael. He teaches her how to live in her new surroundings and she discovers that the time space is a repository of books containing everyone’s memories. As she explores she discovers other people who are there to destroy certain memories forever. She resolves to save the truth.
In 1965 Amelia Duquesne is fifteen and an orphan. She has been taken in by her Uncle Ernest and attends a boarding school in Boston, Massachusetts. She is unhappy there and rebellious. When her uncle dies, she attends his funeral and meets Moira, who is searching for a book that Ernest had in his safekeeping. Moira explains that she needs Amelia’s help. Amelia’s task is to enter the time space and find the book before it falls into the hands of the Russians and a group she calls the Rebels.
The characters and their stories in The Book of Lost Hours are fascinating and this is definitely a “can’t put down’ book. Each character has goals and hopes and dreams, ranging from the romantic to questions of survival. What will each sacrifice in order to achieve their aims? The author controls the way that the various storylines progress very cleverly, so that the eventual outcome for each character is never as clear as it might appear to be. After all, everything is possible in fantasy!
The Book of Lost Hours explores the way in which individual memories provide a historical record and how the recollections of different people of the same event can vary. It is surprisingly topical as schools and libraries withdraw both fiction and non-fiction books based on their ‘unsuitability’. It asks who should control what we collectively remember, and whether one person’s recollections can cast doubt on, or even change, the accepted version of history.
While the settings in the novel are important to the plot, quite a bit of the action takes place in the fantastical “time space”, so this is not so much a book that will describe your holiday destination. Nevertheless, it is a gripping read, and you could easily while away time on your trip in the most agreeable fashion.
Sue for the TripFiction Team
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