Documents, objects and family secrets connect people across decades in Kathryn Hughes’s dual-timeline historical fiction. The Letter begins when a woman working in a charity shop discovers an unposted letter from 1939 and follows the lives linked to it. The Secret and The Key likewise uncover earlier stories through present-day discoveries, while The Memory Box centres on an elderly woman asking a younger companion to help revisit places and memories connected to wartime Italy. Hughes’s novels are accessible, emotional and plot-led, with family history, hidden relationships and the consequences of past decisions providing the main suspense. Those characteristics place the books within dual-timeline fiction, family secrets and historical women’s fiction, especially for readers of Fiona Valpy and Lucinda Riley’s less sprawling historical strands. Read more Less
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