Micki_S

An interesting mix of historical fiction and adventure. The story braids the stories of three women over the last 125 years who have a connection with a book, The Story of Forgotten Time, written by the first woman, Eva, in 1900. Eva was a Cuban teacher who participated in an American program which brought over a thousand Cuban teachers to Harvard for a summer in a bid to Americanize Cuban education.

I very much enjoyed learning about the Harvard Cubans, something I had not known anything about. The second woman, Pilar, lived in Cuba at the time of the Cuban Revolution. She was a book-loving librarian who rebelled against the oppression of the Castro Regime by protecting books. The third woman, Margo, is an American living in London in the 2020s who is hired anonymously to find the only copy of Eva's book.

I appreciated being reminded of how rich Cuba's history and culture are, and how important books are in the lives of some. I personally had a harder time immersing myself in the action-adventure of the contemporary sections of the novel, but given how popular action thrillers are, that may not be a problem for many. I have read several of Chanel Cleeton's novels, and enjoy them.