64 pages • 2-hour read
The Book of Lost Hours
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Chapters 1-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism, religious discrimination, death by suicide, graphic violence, and death.
Chapter 1 Summary: “1938, Nuremberg, Germany”
Ezekiel Levy, a clockmaker, tells a bedtime story to his 11-year-old daughter, Lisavet. He speaks of generations of “timekeepers” with secrets about time that allow them to move through memories. The Nazis tried to take one magical watch that allows such timekeepers to intervene in time, but Ezekiel gave them a fake one instead.
Ezekiel thinks of a letter from a friend in America: Ezekiel and his children are going to leave for the US in a few weeks. Although timekeepers typically pass their knowledge to their sons, he knows that Lisavet will be his heir, as she shares a love of time with him.
Nazis interrupt Ezekiel’s story, destroying shops as they move through the streets. When one gets to Ezekiel’s window and begins pounding on it, he knows that they are there for the true magical timepiece. He destroys all his correspondence with other timekeepers and then rushes to the stairs. He pulls Lisavet up with him. He takes the stopwatch out of his pocket, turns the dial, and then rushes Lisavet to a door in the hall. He tells her that he is going to get his son, Klaus, and then ushers Lisavet through the door, which has only shadows on the other side.
In the room, Lisavet looks around at endless shelves of books. She turns back to the door, but it has already begun to disappear. She hears whispers around her, which she knows from her father’s story is time itself. She sits down by the door, resisting the urge to explore and remembering her father’s words to wait for him.
Lisavet spends the next two weeks in the room. Then, a younger, ghostly man appears. He tells her that he is a memory; they are in the place where consciousness goes when people die. He invites her to look into memories with him, taking her to a festival in Rome centuries ago. He tells her that he was the first timekeeper. He learned from sundials, but his knowledge was then stolen from him by the Romans, who conquered his people. He will always exist in a memory, as his knowledge is valuable. He stays in the “time space” to help future timekeepers. Because he has no name, Lisavet suggests that they call him Azrael.
As the memory ends, Lisavet and Azrael return to the time space. She hears someone walking through the shelves. Azrael warns her that it is a man in the present-day Germany section. Excited, Lisavet runs to him but stops when she sees that he has a Nazi uniform. The soldier takes a book down from the shelf and lights it on fire. The soldier takes out a pocket watch that Lisavet recognizes as her father’s and then leaves. Lisavet rushes to the book, doing her best to pull out the partial pages that remain. She realizes that they are memories of her father. Azrael stands by her as she cries in the aisle.
Chapter 2 Summary: “1965, Boston, Massachusetts”
Moira Donnelly goes to the graveside service of Ernest Duquesne, a CIA agent. He was accused of taking government secrets and selling them to the Russians, leaving him in disgrace. Moira finds Ernest’s 15-year-old niece, Amelia, and approaches her.
Moira introduces herself and tells Amelia that she used to work with her uncle. She asks Amelia if she knows anything about her uncle’s pocket watch, which went missing after he died. Moira gives Amelia a business card, asking Amelia to call her if she finds it. She warns her of the danger of it falling into the wrong hands and instructs Amelia not to wind it.
Amelia gets to school late. One of her classmates taunts her about her uncle’s death and her mother, who died by suicide. When Amelia retaliates, she is sent from the classroom. In the hallway, Amelia remembers Moira’s words. She has the watch on her wrist; she found it in her mailbox with no note a few days earlier. She decides to wind the watch anyway, doing so forward and back. When nothing happens, she tries to go back into the classroom but instead ends up in the time space. Panicked, she winds the watch again, feels herself fall, and then hears Moira’s voice. Moira scolds her for not following directions. When Amelia opens her eyes, she is back by her uncle’s grave.
Moira explains that Amelia has traveled back in time to that morning. She tells Amelia to wind the watch again and then step through another entryway that will return her to the classroom and her present time. Amelia asks if Moira is going to take the watch, but Moira tells her that it’s “too late.”
At Amelia’s boarding school, Moira waits outside the cafeteria for Amelia. She offers to take Amelia home, insisting that doing so will help her stay out of foster care. Amelia is hesitant but decides she has no choice. Moira therefore takes Amelia to her dorm to pack her belongings, noting how much care Amelia takes with her old poetry books. They then go to Amelia’s house, where they sit at the table and discuss Ernest.
Moira explains that the room Amelia was in is the time space. It is the place where the “energy” from thought goes, solidifying itself as memory. Centuries ago, the Romans designed the library-like room to hold it all. Ernest was a timekeeper working for the CIA, which has a goal of “temporal reconnaissance”: finding truths that others have tried to hide. Recently, a group of “rebels” fixated on ending government control of memory has been sabotaging the CIA’s efforts. The CIA believes that these rebels are working with Russia and killed Ernest because he had discovered a “book of lost memories” (42). Most of those memories were destroyed by the Nazis, who did not understand the technology when they stole it from a Jewish timekeeper living in Germany. In the book is the knowledge to create new watches, an art that has been lost.
Moira tells Amelia that the CIA wants her to become a timekeeper and enter the time space. The watch belongs to her, as it was a family heirloom from her uncle, and no one from the rebel group or Russia will recognize Amelia as they would a CIA agent. Moira also warns her that her future is uncertain if she doesn’t cooperate.
Chapter 3 Summary: “1944, Somewhere in the Time Space”
Lisavet spends six years in the time space. During that time, Azrael acts as her guide, teaching her how to “time walk” through memories, steering her away from violence, and explaining how everything works. Meanwhile, Lisavet follows Nazi timekeepers, stealing the memories that are left after they burn books and then hiding them away. One day, Lisavet encounters an American timekeeper. He comes from the shelves after a Nazi timekeeper leaves, taking the burning book, putting out the fire, and then leaving to hide the salvaged memories. Lisavet stares at him from the shadows, intrigued.
Azrael tells Lisavet that she has been in the time space for six years and is now 16 years old. He gives her a memory to enter on her own. In it, she sees two young people passionately kissing. She can tell that it is a memory of love and searches out other memories to learn more. In one memory, Lisavet watches a young man paint his lover. Distracted, she knocks over a jar of paintbrushes and is shocked to realize that she can physically touch things in the memory. She returns to Azrael, and for the first time, he does not have an explanation for her. She begins to wonder if she is dying or has already died, and she realizes that she would be devastated if she died without ever having been in love.
Two more years pass. Lisavet continues visiting memories and learns that she can take items from them, so she takes new clothing, a brush, and more. Nazis stop visiting the time space, but American and Russian timekeepers often destroy memories, so Lisavet continues to save them.
One day, Lisavet follows a Russian timekeeper. When he destroys a book of memories, he tosses the cover aside. Hoping to give her own book of memories a new cover, she goes to grab it, only to realize that the American timekeeper is there. He introduces himself as Ernest Duquesne. When he asks her for the pages she saved, she refuses to give them to him. However, he surprises her by taking them, fleeing through the aisles before Lisavet can stop him. He disappears, but she finds that he left the cover, which is blue with a flower on it, for her.
Chapter 4 Summary: “1965, Boston, Massachusetts”
Over the next few days, Moira becomes frustrated by Amelia’s lack of desire to enter the time space. However, Amelia is afraid, wondering if she can do what Ernest did.
Moira explains the history of the timekeepers. Moira is in charge of the Temporal Reconnaissance Program (TRP), a program that Ernest’s father, Amelia’s grandfather, started. She met Ernest when he worked in the program with her years ago, but he later took over the Office of Temporal Diplomacy. Their boss, Jack Dillinger, oversees everything as the CIA director. She then describes the book Amelia will be looking for, one with a flower on the cover.
Moira goes to the grocery store. When she gets home, Amelia is gone, and her uncle’s watch is in her dresser. Moira finds Amelia at the library. She implores Amelia to enter the time space, insisting that Amelia is strong enough to help and that she will be in no danger, as no one will recognize her. Amelia finally agrees.
After Amelia is gone, Jack appears at Moira’s side. He notes that Amelia was trying to avoid entering the time space, but Moira defends her. Jack then gives her a folder containing names and photographs of KGB agents who could have killed Ernest. The CIA’s top suspect is Anton Stepanov, a 17-year-old whose father, Vasily, was killed by the CIA.
Inside the time space, Amelia struggles to get her bearings. A boy approaches her and speaks to her in a foreign language. Realizing that she’s American, he switches to English and asks if she’s alright. He leads her to the center of the time space, telling her to look into the air to calm herself down. In the sky, Amelia sees swirling memories, which are those currently being made.
After relaxing somewhat, Amelia asks the boy how she can find someone’s memories. He asks whose she is looking for, and she hesitates, realizing that she may not be able to trust him. Sensing her hesitancy, the boy directs her toward the section of American memories. He then shows her how to “assimilate” memories she wants to see, taking her hand and placing it on a book so that she can see them. He then leaves.
As Amelia begins walking through the stacks, an ethereal man approaches her. He asks if she is a timekeeper and then tells her that he knows she is Ernest’s niece. She asks if he knows where she can find the book with the flower on it. The man insists that he doesn’t know where it is but also points her in a specific direction. Amelia continues to walk through the stacks for three hours. Feeling as though she has accomplished nothing, she decides to return to the normal world. She turns her watch, and a doorway opens before her, leading her to the library.
There, Amelia finds a note from Moira along with the folder of KGB agents and three poetry books. The note tells Amelia to diversify her reading by choosing more female poets. When Amelia opens the folder, she sees the boy from the time space, Anton, on top of the pile.
Chapter 5 Summary: “1947, Somewhere in the Time Space”
Sometime after the incident with the book cover, Lisavet realizes that Ernest is following her. She confronts him about it. He explains that she is stopping the timekeepers from doing their jobs, as they are trying to destroy dangerous or harmful memories. In response, Lisavet argues that even the worst ones deserve to be preserved and that no one has the right to make those decisions. When she asks who put Ernest in charge, he explains that his father died and he inherited his role. Lisavet tells him about her father as well, which makes Ernest realize that Lisavet has been in the time space for a long time. He offers to help her, but she flees from him.
Ernest reports back to Jack, the TRP head in 1947, telling him about Lisavet. Jack insists that Lisavet must be working for someone and tells Ernest to continue to follow her. He wants Ernest to steal her book of memories; if he won’t, Jack will take them by force. That night, Ernest can’t stop thinking about Lisavet, his instincts telling him that she is taking the memories because she cares.
One day, Lisavet sees Ernest still following her. Annoyed, she rushes from the stacks to grab a book before the man burning it is gone. He is a Russian timekeeper and shoots at Lisavet, who runs. As she hears him shoot again, Ernest tackles her to the floor and shoots back at the man, who flees. Lisavet then realizes that Ernest has been shot in the side. Ernest tries to leave but is in too much pain, so Lisavet pulls a book from the shelf and takes Ernest into a memory.
They travel to Ukraine in 1918, during the country’s war for independence. Lisavet takes Ernest to a medical tent and watches the nurses care for wounded soldiers. She takes off her dress and then the old sleeping robe that she still wears below it. She rips the robe into strips, using it to clean Ernest’s wound. She then uses vodka to disinfect his wound and tweezers to remove the bullet, stitching it closed as she saw the nurses do. When she’s finished, she finally tells Ernest her name just before he goes unconscious.
When Ernest wakes up, he is in a hotel room. Lisavet explains that they are in Geneva in 1922. Below, her parents are having their first date, a memory taken from her book. He sees the book lying there and remembers that he is supposed to steal it; however, seeing Lisavet and how beautiful she looks, he stops. He realizes that he has feelings for her. As the memory ends, Ernest takes Lisavet’s hand. He asks if he can see her again, and she assures him that she will always be there. She then walks away into the time space.
Chapters 1-5 Analysis
The novel’s dual-timeline structure and shifting point of view emphasize its exploration of history and loss, forcing the reader to experience time as fragmented rather than linear. Above all, the narrative reflects the way that memory itself operates, as it is uneven, recursive, and shaped by emotional impact. Likewise, events from Lisavet’s timeline directly shape the stakes in Amelia’s timeline both personally (for Moira and Amelia) and politically (in the form of the Cold War). The novel thus demonstrates that the past never truly stays in the past. The time space functions as a physical embodiment of this idea, as the novel’s primary fantasy element collapses temporal boundaries and allows for a detailed exploration of the relationship between past and present.
That relationship is one reason why the characters fight so hard to control the time space, which speaks to a central theme: How Power Shapes the Historical Record. The novel introduces this theme through the Nazi’s attempted destruction of Lisavet’s father’s memories, and Lisavet later confirms that many of those targeted for burning and that she herself saves belong to Jews. Azrael explains the rationale for this, saying that the Nazis seek “To uphold their ideology. The past is a mirror of us. It tells us who we’ve been and what we have become, […] so they change it by erasing memories from the face of the earth. By erasing people from existence” (17). This attempt to expunge Jewish history evokes the Nazis’ real-world efforts to suppress the record of Jewish involvement in German intellectual, cultural, and political life, thus excluding the Jewish population from sharing in German identity. Conversely, Lisavet’s acts of preservation mirror real-world efforts to safeguard that history while also highlighting the centrality of remembrance to Jewish identity, particularly in the wake of the Holocaust.
The personal and the geopolitical histories of the characters unfold in parallel, suggesting their interrelationship. As Lisavet struggles with the loss of her father and Amelia struggles with the loss of her uncle, the Holocaust and the Cold War are ongoing, introducing the theme of The Destructive Nature of War. War reverberates across generations, reshaping lives through violence in ways that linger even decades after the conflict’s conclusion. Ultimately, the novel’s structure allows the reader to hold multiple timelines, perspectives, and lived experiences at once, emphasizing the necessity of doing so to understand history.
In both timelines, Jack emerges as the primary antagonist. He is characterized as someone who is ruthless and without empathy. His primary motivation is protecting the CIA, and he himself embodies government power and bureaucracy. In the WWII timeline, he refuses to listen to Ernest, insisting that Lisavet is dangerous and must be forcibly removed from the time space and killed. In the Cold War timeline, he cares little about Amelia, despite the fact that she is a child and recently lost her uncle. Instead, he uses both Ernest and Amelia as tools for maintaining both his own power and that of the CIA.
Lisavet’s years in the time space develop the tension between preservation and destruction, placing her in direct opposition to Jack and his embodiment of institutional power. Her refusal to listen to Azrael and Ernest’s warnings, and her willingness to place herself in danger to save memories establish her motivation throughout the text: She refuses to rank memory, and thus human life, by usefulness. Instead, Lisavet believes in the value of every life, challenging the idea that any one narrative should determine history. Her book of stolen memories is introduced as a symbol of memory itself as well as a tool of resistance rooted in compassion, an emotion that is missing in Jack and the bureaucracy he represents. Lisavet reminds the reader not to lose sight of the individuals affected by war and other large-scale historical events.
The love story at the center of the novel serves as another reminder of individuality within the machine of war. After years alone in the time space, Lisavet is reminded of her humanity by Ernest, introducing the theme of The Value of Human Connection. Their romance will serve as a source of change and growth for both. Already, Lisavet realizes what she is missing while trapped in the time space, including the chance to fall in love. Her care for Ernest in a wartime memory transforms their relationship, forcing both of them to trust each other. Similarly, when she takes Ernest to the memory of her parents’ date, it emphasizes the importance of small moments of connection in individual lives. In that moment, when Ernest chooses not to steal the book, he prioritizes human connection over duty, signaling the start of his moral awakening.
Amelia’s journey in the present parallels Lisavet’s, connecting their stories across time and foreshadowing later revelations regarding their shared histories. Just as Lisavet is thrust into the time space by her father and forced into her new role of protecting memories, Amelia, too, is thrown into it. She does not ask to inherit Ernest’s role, just as Lisavet does not choose exile. When she meets Anton, who supports and guides her despite the clash between KGB and CIA, it reflects Lisavet’s early interactions with Ernest, which are likewise characterized by the fear and mistrust thrust upon them by nations at war.
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