Release Date: February 4th, 2020
Genre(s): Historical Fiction
Publisher: Hanover Square Press
Pages: 272
Rating: 
The Lost Book of Adana Moreau is Michael Zapata’s newest release. Adana Moreau is a Dominican immigrant living in New Orleans during the 1930’s. During that time, she publishes a science fiction novel that gains a modest following. She begins a sequel to the book, but is never able to finish it due to her passing, and her son Maxwell destroyed the manuscript.
Many years later, Saul Drower of Chicago is going through his grandfather’s things, and he finds a manuscript titled by Adana Moreau. Not knowing the name nor her association with his grandfather, Saul and his friend Javier search for answers in New Orleans during the onset of Hurricane Katrina.
One of the most prominent aspects of this book for me (and my favorite as well) was the idea of preserving memories, your family, and your heritage through writing. Throughout the book, there are several descriptions of the major events of Adana Moreau’s novels, and much of her writing is based on her own life and journey to America. This concept ties into Saul’s perspective as well, and I really liked how this concept was executed over multiple generations of people.
That being said, although this book is presented as a mystery, it ends up becoming much more than that. While I was originally intrigued about the mystery before starting, I became much more invested in the characters and their stories as soon as the book took off. For a book that’s just short of 300 pages, it does pack a punch.
The only thing I found distracting from the overall story was the way that the story was told. The narrative of this book is presented as if a person were telling you the story, and because of that it’s not as descriptive. Sometimes, between this and the way that the dialogue was written, I did find myself lost at some points and had to retrace my reading. But in the same breath, I can see the rationale for it – one of the primary themes of the story is about telling stories, so this technique makes sense in comparison.
I loved how much there was to unpack in this book. There are so many discussions going on in such a short book, even though in summary it’s a book about a book. It’s also a book that’s about displacement, heritage, parallel universes, science fiction, and becoming connected with others on a whole new level. There are so many things that don’t sound like they would go together, but they come together in this book, and the author manages this so smoothly.
I’d highly recommend The Lost Book of Adana Moreau. Between the character’s backstories, the themes of this book, and the variety of concepts explored, there is so much that this book offers. Above all, this book explores how we are all connected. And because this was a debut, I’m looking forward to seeing if the author publishes more books In the future.
