The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes

The novel interweaves three timelines connected by A Time for Forgetting, a rare 1901 novel by Cuban author Eva Fuentes of which only one copy is known to exist. The stories of three women converge around this book and the secrets it carries.

In present-day London, Margo Reynolds, an American expat who runs a business sourcing rare antiques and valuables for wealthy clients, is hired by William Greer, an intermediary for an unnamed employer, to find A Time for Forgetting. He authorizes twenty thousand pounds and warns that other parties are also searching for the book. Margo consults her mentor, Mr. Thornton, a veteran Notting Hill bookshop owner, who reveals someone else asked about the title a month earlier. When Margo returns the next evening for his research notes, she finds Mr. Thornton stabbed and bleeding. Before dying, he presses a flash drive into her hand and warns that "they" want the book. Police dismiss the murder as part of a neighborhood robbery spree.

In 1966 Havana, Pilar Castillo is a librarian whose husband Enrique was arrested months earlier by Fidel Castro's secret police for political subversion. Her neighbor Zenaida, fleeing Cuba for Madrid, entrusts Pilar with A Time for Forgetting and asks her to return it to the author. Since Enrique's arrest, Pilar has been secretly safeguarding books for departing Cubans, hiding them under her apartment floorboards. She begins reading the novel and is captivated by the story of Ana, a Cuban teacher who falls in love during a cultural exchange in Boston. Between the pages, Pilar discovers a letter signed by Eva expressing deep longing for a lost love.

In 1900 Havana, Eva Fuentes is an unmarried schoolteacher and aspiring novelist who accepts a chance to attend the Cuban Summer School at Harvard, a program sending approximately 1,300 Cuban teachers to study in the United States. Cuba is under American military occupation following the end of Spain's colonial rule, and Eva views the trip as both a way to serve her country and to find inspiration for her writing.

Greer sends Margo a photograph of a man leaving Mr. Thornton's shop, and she recognizes her ex-husband, Luke Walsh, an investigator. Luke explains he took over a colleague's case: A woman in Edinburgh hired him to find the same book. They share information and agree to work together. The flash drive yields Mr. Thornton's research: Eva attended the Harvard summer school, and the book was published by Reston Brothers Publishing, a now-defunct Boston firm. The drive also references Natalia Evans, a London-based woman of Cuban descent who tracks lost or stolen Cuban property through her website.

Pilar's world grows more dangerous. A military major moves into Zenaida's vacated apartment. Someone searches Pilar's apartment, pulling up the floorboards, though she had already moved the hidden books to the library. Her boss, Ignacio Arenas, the head librarian, warns that a man came asking whether she supports the revolution. Then devastating news arrives: Enrique died in prison from illness and malnourishment. Pilar is consumed by grief, finding solace only in rereading Eva's novel.

At Harvard, Eva meets James Webber at a dance, believing him to be a student and aspiring writer. They bond over shared creative frustrations, and James takes Eva sailing in Buzzards Bay, where they share their first kiss. Eva's roommate, Dolores Aguilar, encourages the romance but warns her to be careful.

Margo's London office is broken into after someone spoofs her email to lure away her assistant, Bea Carlyle. Margo and Luke visit Natalia Evans, who claims ignorance of the book but offers to help. They then travel to Edinburgh to meet Luke's client, Adriana Josephs. On the overnight train, Margo and Luke have a raw conversation about their failed marriage, acknowledging mutual mistakes; Luke reveals he and his girlfriend Sasha have broken up. In Edinburgh, Adriana explains that her great-grandmother Dolores was Eva's roommate at Harvard. Eva gave Dolores a copy of the novel, which passed through the family until Adriana's grandmother fled Cuba in 1966, leaving the book with a librarian neighbor. Adriana wants to return it to Eva's family.

Eva then discovers James is not a student but a journalist covering the summer school. She finds her own private words in his notes, attributed to her by name. James admits his deception but insists his feelings are genuine, swearing to scrap the article. Eva tentatively forgives him. In the program's final days, he tells her he loves her and promises to visit her in Havana.

In 1966, Pilar finds Eva's address in an old telephone directory. Enrique's friend Esteban, recently released from prison, warns her that someone betrayed their network. That night, the military major ransacks Pilar's apartment, demanding the hidden books; he found the list of locations she had tucked inside A Time for Forgetting and is acting on personal greed. Pilar strikes him unconscious with a heavy iron pan. Neighbors tell her she must flee that night; a fisherman can take her to Key West. At the library, she overhears the major talking with Ignacio, who confesses that the regime coerced him into informing by threatening him and his wife. His reports led to Enrique's arrest and death.

In her final hours in Cuba, Pilar visits Eva's apartment, meets Eva's granddaughter Evita, and returns the book. Eva shares the full truth behind the novel: The romance was idealized. James was actually a married journalist who deceived her. Eva became pregnant, returned to Boston, and was rejected. She stayed at a home for unwed mothers, wrote the novel while pregnant, gave up her daughter for adoption, and returned to Havana. The hidden letter was not written to a lover but to the daughter she was forced to give up. Pilar entrusts Eva with the list of hidden books, and Eva and Evita agree to help smuggle them out of Cuba.

In Boston, Margo and Luke research the publisher's archives and find Eva's submission letter with a return address at the home for unwed mothers, confirming her pregnancy. They reconnect emotionally and physically, admitting they never moved on from each other. Luke learns that Pilar Castillo is putting A Time for Forgetting up for auction in London. Margo also learns that Greer's employer, Bennett Baskin, an American businessman, wants to meet her.

Back in London, Margo and Luke examine the auctioned copy. That evening, Margo finds Natalia in her flat, armed and holding Mr. Thornton's flash drive. Natalia reveals she is not a Cuban exile but a Cuban intelligence operative who used her website to infiltrate exile communities. Her father was the military major Pilar struck in 1966. She wants revenge and the list of hidden books, which she believes are worth millions. Natalia confesses to planting a fake copy at the auction as a trap to draw out Pilar and admits her associate killed Mr. Thornton. Margo stalls her while the emergency call on her phone connects, then tackles her. Police arrive and arrest Natalia.

An epilogue set in Key West in 1970 shows Pilar receiving the book one final time. Evita, who has defected from Cuba, brings it to the library where Pilar now works, fulfilling Eva's dying wish. Over four years, Pilar, Evita, Eva, and Esteban successfully smuggled dozens of exiled families' books out of Cuba and returned them to their owners.

In the novel's final London scenes, Margo reunites Bennett, Pilar, and Evita at a restaurant. Bennett confirms he is Eva's grandson: A DNA test taken by his daughter revealed Cuban ancestry, and his investigation uncovered that his mother was the baby Eva gave up for adoption, the daughter of Eva and James Webber, a senator from Massachusetts. Pilar hands the real A Time for Forgetting to Bennett. He decides to publish a new edition with Pilar writing the foreword and plans to donate proceeds to a literacy foundation in Mr. Thornton's memory. Luke asks Margo on a date, and both acknowledge they want to try their relationship again.

The novel closes with an excerpt from Pilar's foreword describing how Eva's novel came to her during the darkest period of her life, affirming her belief that there is a book meant for every reader at the moment they need it most.