The Lost Year: Chapter 37–Epilogue

by Katherine Marsh
Stuck in his New Jersey house during the Covid pandemic, thirteen-year-old Matthew helps his hundred-year-old great-grandmother organize her stuff and learns about her life as a Young Pioneer in 1930s Ukraine.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–7, Chapters 8–15, Chapters 16–24, Chapters 25–36, Chapter 37–Epilogue
40 words 12 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. leisurely
    not hurried or forced
    Then he turned back to the men as leisurely as if they had just been chatting about the weather.
  2. brandish
    exhibit aggressively
    The tall man brandished a piece of paper.
  3. jowl
    a looseness of the flesh of the lower cheek and jaw
    Papa’s “trial” over, a squat man with jowls who reminded me of
 a bulldog grabbed him roughly by his elbows and marched him to
 the door.
  4. purge
    oust politically
    Moscow has been purging the Ukrainian Party since New Year’s.
  5. appraise
    consider in a comprehensive way
    The tall man appraised me with a cold eye.
  6. relish
    derive or receive pleasure from
    He was younger than the others and 
wore a sour look as if he didn’t relish being left behind with me.
  7. berate
    censure severely or angrily
    I could hear myself order
ing her to fetch me chocolates, Papa berating her for letting me
 open the mail the day I found the lice.
  8. upholstery
    covering on a piece of furniture
    Nothing felt real anymore, not the cool night air, not the ridged
upholstery beneath me or the hum of the motor as we drove.
  9. shorn
    having the hair, fur, or wool cut short
    Anger launched me off the
 stool, but the sight of my own shorn head reflected in the darkened
 window made me lose my purpose.
  10. brazen
    not held back by conventional ideas of behavior
    For a moment, I didn’t know who to be more furious with:
 Dasha, for thinking that a handful of chocolates would make up for
 what she’d done to me, or the matron brazenly stuffing them into
 her pockets.
  11. cadaver
    the dead body of a human being
    Children lay on cots arranged in tight 
rows—some had curled into balls, others lay as pale and straight as cadavers, and others shifted and twitched restlessly.
  12. makeshift
    done or made using whatever is available
    I had no intention of sharing their makeshift washstand and felt only relief when a tall girl hauled the bucket away.
  13. straggler
    someone who strays or falls behind
    I dragged myself to my feet and followed some other stragglers down the stairs to a canteen.
  14. drab
    lacking brightness or color; dull
    The walls were a drab yellow; the
 only decoration was a poster of Stalin, grasping the steering wheel
 of a boat and looking away from us.
  15. jostle
    make one's way by pushing or shoving
    There were boys here, too, though they looked much the same as the girls—thin and pasty, with shaven heads and dripping noses. I could tell they were boys, 
though, because they jostled more in line—here and there a fist
 flew, or someone pushed.
  16. vigorous
    characterized by forceful and energetic action or activity
    Mom shook her head, gave the strainer a vigorous shake.
  17. skeptical
    marked by or given to doubt
    “Release her with no punishment?”
    Nadiya sounded skeptical.
  18. ravenous
    extremely hungry
    “Hungry? I could use a snack.”
    I was suddenly ravenous.
  19. clamor
    a loud, harsh, or strident noise
    The morning bell
 was clanging and, judging from the clamor of footsteps and voices,
 had been for a while.
  20. reedy
    thin and high-pitched in tone
    Her voice was high and reedy but not
 unpleasant, a voice that made me think of what voices were like
 long ago.
  21. sheepish
    showing a sense of shame
    “Hello,” Mom said with a sheepish grin.
  22. bristle
    react in an offended or angry manner
    I bristled with annoyance.
  23. downcast
    filled with melancholy and despondency
    Before I could ponder this, the door to Mr. Kaminski’s office
 opened and a man with a downcast expression shuffled out, followed by our lawyer.
  24. infirmary
    a health facility where patients receive treatment
    “Where am I?” My voice was hoarse and didn’t sound like my own.
    "Typhus ward of the infirmary,” he said.
  25. delirium
    a usually brief state of excitement and mental confusion
    “I was out all that time?”
    “In and out. Delirium. Shhhh.”
  26. neutral
    lacking distinguishing quality or characteristics
    Was I dying? I watched his face for clues. But his expression remained
 neutral.
  27. indisputable
    impossible to doubt
    But he answered me in a clear, indisputable voice: “No.”
  28. imposter
    a person who makes deceitful pretenses
    It was a crazy theory anyway, that my great-grandmother had lived most of her life as an imposter.
  29. fleeting
    lasting for a markedly brief time
    For a fleeting second, I saw mischievous
 young Mila staring back at me.
  30. deem
    judge or regard in a particular way
    The only item that had been saved was our coat, which had been
 deemed too expensive to burn, and had been fumigated and, out of 
pity, returned to me.
  31. befall
    happen or be the case in the course of events or by chance
    A second longer
 and I would have told her all about Nadiya and everything that had befallen us, but one of the matrons began shouting out names, and
 Katya let go of my hand and looked away.
  32. convalescent
    a person who is recovering from illness
    “She’s been ill,” said a voice behind me. “Convalescents are
 always emotional.”
  33. transfixed
    having your attention fixated as though witchcraft
    Helen leaned in, transfixed.
  34. latter
    the second of two or the second mentioned of two
    I wished
 Ruth could help me, but she wasn’t at the shop, and she and Nadiya
 couldn’t really communicate anyway: Ruth didn’t speak Ukrainian or Russian—Nadiya generally spoke the latter for Mom’s benefit—
and Nadiya only understood a few phrases of English, though I was
 teaching her more every day.
  35. haughty
    having or showing arrogant superiority
    I spoke in a haughty voice, wagged my finger. “Helen Lomachenko, who do you think you are?”
  36. scrutiny
    the act of examining something closely, as for mistakes
    Mrs. Marchuk said she first reached out to the editor of this paper in 1933 to challenge the reporting
 of Russia correspondent Walter Duranty, whose coverage of 
the famine has increasingly come under scrutiny in recent
 years.
  37. credential
    a document attesting to the truth of certain stated facts
    Mrs. Marchuk is not a credentialed historian.
  38. corroborate
    support with evidence or authority or make more certain
    “We’ve relied on her oral histories both to find living survivors to testify before Congress and to corroborate other witness accounts,” said Dr. James E. Mace, Staff Director of the Commission.
  39. touchy
    quick to take offense
    Mom didn’t look up when I struck a match and lit the citronella candles, though she used to get all touchy about me and fire.
  40. mystical
    relating to a belief in communion with an ultimate reality
    I don’t normally believe in mystical stuff or messages from the beyond, but what happened next seemed like more than just a coincidence: A ray of light fell on GG’s gravestone illuminating the names we’d chosen—and yes, there was more than one...
Created on Tue Oct 10 16:25:35 EDT 2023 (updated Wed Oct 11 18:14:13 EDT 2023)

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