This article examines the way that Uruguayan author Mauricio Rosencof reconstructs family genealogy and self identity in Las cartas que no llegaron. The materiality of memory has an impor­tant place in the novel: the superimposed stories take shape through spaces and objects tied to the protagonist's childhood and the family history. The author employs a double entendre in which referential immediacy is combined with complex, fictionalizing strategies. The latter, corresponding to the three most important elements regarding memory in the novel, are analyzed separately: the family album, the cards, and the word.