Rachel Reviews: Lost Letters by Tom Hapgood

Tom Hapgood's book is a lot of things. It has history, both twentieth century and prior; it has youth and the coming-of-age; it has, through its characters' situations, a discussion of the health concerns that can encroach as life continues inexorably towards death; and it has the secrets that lurk in the family vault, just waiting to be uncovered and brought to the surface.

And that's where this book starts: with Jason, our protagonist, uncovering a pile of letters in his parents' basement with a note from his mother asking his forgiveness for having kept them hidden from him all these years.

This is also the end point of the book as we are led back to the discovery of the letters, only we now have the knowledge, through having Jason's story revealed, to understand their significance, and the contents of them are made transparent.

The story is told in the third person and we are in both the present and the past, Jason's recollections of his time in Germany and other incidents from his youth told through flashback. These are clearly marked at the chapter openings and the transitions between them are slick and unhindered.

This is a good read. Hapgood's story allows his character to recall how he acted when he was a teenager in Germany. Because of the third person narration, we have the feeling of it being revealed truthfully rather than skewed to how Jason would want us to see it. It has all of the hallmarks of a coming-of-age book in these sections and the excitement and attraction of Silke, the German girl who Jason is beguiled by while his dad is stationed there is palpable - she is unlike anything he has ever known. But Jason already has a strong attraction to a good old American girl - how is that going to play out?

There is also some delving into history, the fact that it is set in Germany providing a hint as to what is its subject. It was an added aspect to a book that was already strong on story but not a distraction, it being threaded through as a subplot.

If I have any criticism, sometimes for me the dialogue was a little "clunky" - some of it read truly but there were other interactions which felt less smooth. But this is a minor flaw in a overall well-written book.

Rachel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

This review was first published on Reedsy Discovery where I was privileged to read it as an ARC: