The Lost Book of Adana Moreau
The Lost Book of Adana Moreau has so many elements happening at all times, but it somehow (credit to author Michael Zapata) works together harmoniously and magically. There’s a few storylines. Here are the key ones:
In 1929 in New Orleans, a Dominican immigrant named Adana Moreau writes a science fiction novel, called Lost City. It’s a sweeping story of parallel earths, refugees, and exile. It receives critical acclaim, so she begins a sequel, but soon falls ill. Before she dies, she burns the manuscript — making the sequel lost to history.
In 1933, Adan’s son, Maxwell Moreau, leaves their home in New Orleans to search for his father, who had left after Adana died to find work. His father calls himself the Last Pirate of the New World. In Chicago, Maxwell meets a young Jewish boy, Benjamin, who was born on a ship as his Jewish parents fled Europe. They strike up a friendship…
In 2004, Saul’s grandfather, Benjamin, dies in Chicago. Benjamin, a historian, has raised Saul from the age of 5, after his parents are killed in a terror attack in Israel. Benjamin leaves Saul a package that needs to be mailed to Maxwell after his death.
In 2005, Saul reconnects with a childhood friend, Javier, who works as a journalist in Latin America. They decide to search for Maxwell, now a famous theoretical physicist, who seems to have been in New Orleans as Hurricane Katrina hit.
At its heart, The Lost Book of Adana Moreau is a story of stories — and a story of exile. After Saul reads his grandfather’s copy of Adana Moreau’s book for the first time, we learn: “He could finally see what others had possibly not seen for a long time, or maybe what his grandfather had seen in the book all along: that every word, every sentence, every passage, every chapter, concluding in the whole vast thing, spoke of exile.”
There are so many stories within Zapata’s novel — not just of Adana, Benjamin, Saul, and Maxwell. But of their families and their lives and the historical forces that pushed them from their homes and into new lands. A gorgeously told novel, and one I’ll be thinking about for a long time.
Rating: ★★★★★
