64 pages • 2-hour read
The Book of Lost Hours
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Chapters 10-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child death, death by suicide, graphic violence, sexual content, and death.
Chapter 10 Summary: “1950, Somewhere in the Time Space”
Over the next few months, Lisavet becomes restless in the time space. She tracks Ernest’s movements, even though he doesn’t remember her, while being tracked herself by timekeepers from every country. One night, when she feels something move inside her, she realizes that she is pregnant.
A few months later, Lisavet is still dealing with timekeepers chasing her. At the same time, the baby is restless. She learns that singing “Blue Moon” is the only thing that calms the baby down. When she is singing it one day, a spectral girl appears. Lisavet is shocked to recognize her as Ernest’s younger sister, Elaina, who was disowned by her family after she got pregnant out of wedlock. Elaina tells her that she recognizes the song. Her child died a few months after it was born, and Elaina died by suicide six months after that.
After Elaina tells her story, Lisavet offers to preserve Elaina’s memories for her as other timekeepers do. Elaina is grateful, as she was nervous about Ernest having to do it. Lisavet takes the book of poems from Ernest and then pulls Elaina’s memories from her mind and puts them into the pages of the book.
A while later, Lisavet wakes up from a dream in pain. She realizes that she is going to have the baby early. She desperately searches through books of memories until she finds a hospital in Austria. There, the nurses help deliver her baby, a girl, which takes several hours. Lisavet leaves the memory in the night, taking her child with her. When Lisavet arrives back in the time space, Azrael is there. She realizes that inserting herself into the memory altered history, destroying not just pages but an entire shelf of books. Although Azrael looks concerned, Lisavet insists that it was worth it because it protected her baby.
Over the first weeks, Lisavet struggles to care for her child. Her body stops producing milk, likely due to her living outside of time. Azrael insists that Lisavet needs to leave the time space and raise her daughter in the real world. Lisavet returns to the memory in Geneva, grappling with the idea of leaving the time space versus trying to find another solution. In the end, she decides that her only solution is to give her baby to Elaina to raise, even if it devastates her. As Azrael warns her against it, Lisavet travels to Elaina’s memories of the night her child died. Elaina sees her, and Lisavet assures her that the baby is fine. When she asks what she is going to name her, Elaina solicits Lisavet’s opinion. Lisavet suggests the name Amelia.
When Lisavet returns to the time space, a chasm has opened up in the floor. The Russian timekeeper is there. He tries to talk to her, asking her not to run, but she flees, dropping her book of memories in the process. As she watches, he takes the book and steps through a door out of the time space.
Over the years, Lisavet follows Elaina and Amelia’s lives in memories. She intervenes repeatedly, doing things like giving Elaina money and preventing accidents that would’ve killed Amelia. One night in 1952, Azrael and Lisavet fight over what she is doing. Her actions have created the chasm in the time space. However, Lisavet continues to insist that it is worth it to save her daughter. Later that night, two American CIA agents ambush her. When she flees, she runs into Jack, who sedates her and pulls her out of the time space.
Chapter 11 Summary: “1965, Boston, Massachusetts”
When Amelia wakes up the next morning, she finds Jack in her kitchen with Moira and an agent named Fred Vance. Jack informs her that they are going to send her back into the time space to catch Anton. Amelia is hesitant, but seeing Moira’s resignation convinces her that she has no choice.
Amelia spends six hours wandering through the time space. On the verge of giving up, she runs into Anton. He begins to chase her, so she opens a door; however, before she can get through, Anton overtakes her. He pulls a random book from the shelf and pulls her into a memory. As he does so, she sees a blue forget-me-not on his shirt. Anton asks Amelia to explain why she is hostile toward him. He shows her an embroidered handkerchief with a blue forget-me-not and the initials “EGD.” He explains that Ernest was the leader and founder of the rebellion, as well as his friend.
Meanwhile, Vance returns alone to the real world. Jack wonders how Anton can time walk, as only Ernest knows how to do it. He questions Ernest’s loyalty. Moira tries to get him to care about Amelia, but Jack insists that she is compromised.
When Amelia returns, Jack points his gun at her. In response, Moira points hers at Jack. Amelia accuses them of lying about what happened to Ernest. She then attacks Vance, causing Jack to restrain her and take her watch. Amelia accuses him of killing Ernest, causing Moira to intervene and send Amelia to her room before Jack can harm her.
With Amelia gone, Jack asks Moira if she saw Ernest before he died. She continues to lie and insist that she did not, causing Jack to question her loyalty further. He sends Vance up to get Amelia, planning to use her to get Moira to talk. However, Amelia is no longer there.
Chapter 12 Summary: “1952, Washington, DC”
Lisavet spends the first few days in a hospital bed in stasis. Her consciousness drifts between the real world and the time space, and she feels tethered to neither. She forces herself to focus on the nurses and Jack. She learns that her body cannot eat or digest anything on its own, forcing her to need an IV. It remains this way for three more months, as Lisavet spends her conscious hours staring out the bars on her window. She can still hear the “whisper” of time in her head, which is her only source of comfort.
One day, Jack comes to Lisavet’s room. He introduces himself and warns her that she has the power to determine her fate. He shows her images of World War II and the Holocaust, insisting that she needs to know what happened in the real world despite her revulsion. Afterward, he points out that her efforts to stop the Nazis from burning memories did nothing in the grand scheme of things. All she did was make relations with Russia worse, as people began to suspect that she was an American spy. Before leaving, he asks what happened to the baby; Lisavet tells him that she died.
A week later, Jack brings Lisavet books. One of them is Aurora Leigh, the verse novel by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Noting how she likes it, Jack brings her more poetry. However, he taunts her about how much Ernest likes poetry, too.
Over the next several weeks, Jack continues to visit Lisavet. He asks her questions about the last few years, demanding to know details about her experiences in the time space. She willingly complies, insisting that she lost her book of memories and revealing that she caused the chasm by changing the past. One day, Jack allows Lisavet to go outside. He takes her into the courtyard, explaining that she is in a psychiatric facility. When Lisavet becomes overwhelmed by the sights and sounds, she focuses on the whisper of time in her head. To her shock, it causes all of time to stop. Because she is touching Jack, the two are suspended. At Jack’s encouragement, she restores time a few moments later. Meanwhile, Jack looks at her as if he “owns” her.
Lisavet spends the next two years in the hospital. Jack visits her once a week, slowly taking her places in public. One day in June, he takes her to the CIA headquarters and introduces her to Brady and Collins, the two timekeepers who dragged her from the time space. He shows her a man named Henry, who is tied up on a bench. He tells Lisavet that he has too much information and will be killed for his knowledge; he then asks Lisavet to erase his memory. Lisavet is hesitant but complies.
In the car, Lisavet and Jack fight about what he made her do. She insists that it is not up to him to erase the past and that he should not have the power to do so. However, Jack counters that she created the chasm, meaning that she made the decision to change the past on her own.
Two days later, Jack returns. He tells Lisavet that she is going to leave the hospital and become his secretary. He will help her integrate back into society while keeping an eye on her. He tells her that she will have the chance to pick her own name. Lisavet decides on the name Moira.
Chapter 13 Summary: “1965, Boston, Massachusetts”
After escaping her home, Amelia goes to see James Gravel. She learns that federal agents destroyed his shop after he met with Amelia and Moira. She finds him inside it, and he is initially mean and dismissive toward her. However, he eventually softens and takes Amelia to the back of his shop. There, James shows Amelia a locked box containing a set of watches that Ernest stole from the CIA. Simultaneously, Anton was supposed to take the watches from the Russian government; the rebels would then unite, effectively ending government control of the time space. However, on the night before their plan was enacted, it changed. James speculates that it had something to do with Ernest finding Lisavet’s book and his conversation with Moira.
Jack, Vance, and Moira appear at the shop. James opens a door to the time space and tries to urge Amelia through it, but Jack shoots him. Amelia hits Jack’s arm, stopping him from killing James. Jack points his gun at Amelia in response, while Moira points hers at Vance. Just as someone shoots, time freezes. Only Amelia and Moira are unaffected. Amelia realizes that Moira shot at Vance, but the bullet has stopped in mid-air. Moira explains that Amelia is the one who stopped time. She promises Amelia that she will explain what happened later; she then pushes Amelia through the door to the time space and closes it, leaving Amelia without a watch.
Alone, Moira unfreezes time. Jack realizes that she has joined the rebellion and that Amelia is her child. Moira notes that it is Jack’s arrogance that stopped him from seeing the truth, as he thought that he had control of everyone; Moira shoots and kills him.
Chapters 10-13 Analysis
This section of the text brings Lisavet to an emotional and ethical breaking point. Her pregnancy and eventual separation from her child develop the theme of The Importance of Accepting Grief and Loss. Her exhaustion and restlessness in the time space, once a refuge, emphasize that this space can no longer sustain life or growth. Her pregnancy transforms her abstract debates with Ernest and Azrael into physical realities, as history is no longer something that she preserves but instead something that she can manipulate. Lisavet’s decision to intervene throughout Amelia’s life, despite seeing the chasm her survival created, illustrates how even acts rooted in love can fracture history. Lisavet’s refusal to accept her loss and subsequent decision to help Elaina destabilize the time space, embodying the dangers of refusing to accept grief.
Lisavet’s captivity by Jack illustrates the intersection of The Destructive Nature of War and institutional violence. As Jack forces Lisavet to relive the history that she missed, he reduces human suffering to a bureaucratic tool. Jack weaponizes history, exposing Lisavet to atrocity as a form of manipulation. He also uses the truth selectively while insisting that Lisavet’s preservation of memories was meaningless—actions that mirror historical revisionism. His manipulation continues through the use of poetry, as he gives Lisavet something she craves while reaffirming his power over her. Jack’s coopting of her ability to freeze time reveals the end goal of all this coercion and suggests how states use individuals to their advantage, particularly during times of conflict, when the ends are often seen as justifying the means.
In turn, Lisavet’s participation marks a moral compromise born from the need to survive. Her transformation into Moira Donnelly embodies How Power Shapes the Historical Record at the level of identity. By choosing a new name, Lisavet survives, but her identity is fragmented: Her past is buried and manipulated by Jack, who decides who she is and what role she will play. As she becomes Jack’s secretary, she is absorbed into the institutional power structure, perpetuating the authoritarianism that she previously resisted. Nevertheless, the moment when Jack sees Lisavet freeze time in the courtyard also exposes the fundamental flaw of Jack’s plan: his belief that power equates to ownership. He views Lisavet not as a person but as a resource, ignoring her individuality and autonomy, which she retains even amid outward compliance.
That said, even Lisavet’s resistance is altered by trauma and pressure. Lisavet’s silence about Amelia is an act of protection, yet it is one that buries the truth and thus replicates the actions of those who seek control over the time space. Ultimately, her grief does not disappear but instead transforms as she refuses to confront it. This section reframes Moira as a survivor, but a survivor at a cost, lending further insight into her cold, systematic nature as seen by Amelia throughout the text.
As the truths about Moira and Amelia’s identities are finally revealed in this section of the text, they are united as mother and daughter through their assertion of agency. Amelia takes control of her narrative by returning to James and standing up to Jack; her actions encourage Moira to rebel similarly, pushing her to kill Jack after years of his manipulation and control. That the two stories mirror each other further highlights the links between mother and daughter. For instance, Amelia stops time inadvertently just as Moira/Lisavet did earlier in the text. As an openly defiant act, the moment highlights the differences between the two women—Moira’s resistance has been subtler throughout her life—but it also draws them together. Ultimately, they reunite as Jack’s control finally comes to an end, implying that their connection gives them the ability to finally overcome bureaucratic control (part of The Value of Human Connection). Jack’s final words acknowledge Lisavet’s identity, calling her “Miss Levy” and metaphorically collapsing the distinction between Lisavet and Moira. While history can be manipulated, human connection, memory, and moral reckoning resist such erasure.
The revelation that Ernest is the founder of the rebellion similarly conveys the importance of resistance to historical erasure. Ironically, Lisavet tried to erase his memories, forcing him to forget about her and her acts of rebellion years before. She then spends years trying to erase traces of herself, believing that doing so protects her, Amelia, and Ernest. However, Ernest subconsciously continues to protect the truth, resisting Jack and rediscovering Lisavet.
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