Holloway: Chapters 17–20

by Elana K. Arnold
Nora's Paris journey begins in 2021 with her mother's ashes after losing her during the pandemic. A dark holloway transports Nora back to 1946, but her goal remains: find a way to honor her mother — and heal herself — in a broken world.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Chapters 1–5, Chapters 6–10, Chapters 11–16, Chapters 17–20, Chapters 21–29
15 words 4 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. aperture
    a natural opening in something
    Where I am, when I am, who I am...where my mother’s ashes might be and how I might be able to get them back...it’s too much to bear all at once. I’ll slip away if I open that aperture.
  2. turncoat
    a disloyal person who betrays or deserts a cause
    A huge loss for the Germans in its own right, the Allies’ victory in France also tied up the Nazi troops, preventing them from moving to the Eastern Front to fight off the Soviets, who switched teams throughout the war, turncoats, side to side.
  3. nihilism
    complete denial of established authority and institutions
    I couldn’t heal my mother, then. No one could. Now, this man believes he can heal the world, that the world can be healed. And it’s not nihilism that I don’t believe him. I know where we end up, after all.
  4. inertia
    the tendency of something to stay in rest or motion
    My body is heavy with inertia, exhaustion.
  5. pliant
    able to adjust readily to different conditions
    On these mornings, Gillian is soft and dreamy and pliant; she doesn’t seem to be as bothered by anything I’m doing or saying.
  6. nexus
    the means of connection between things linked in series
    The table in the middle is the nexus of all the creation. It’s a workbench, large and worn, and at it sits a man, maybe twenty-five or thirty, in a green peaked felt cap; he hasn’t stirred from his work since we entered his room.
  7. rebuff
    an instance of driving away or warding off
    Auguste doesn’t answer in words or even glance at us, but he raises and drops the shoulder her hand rests on, a sort of friendly rebuff.
  8. allegory
    a short moral story
    “Not that cave,” I try to interrupt, push away his hands—he’s telling me Plato’s allegory of the cave—but he barrels on and on about the shadows, the puppet show, the rare few who manage to escape the cave and see the true reality beyond.
  9. cubist
    of art that renders objects as abstract, geometric planes
    The profile had been cubist, clean lines in pen and ink, no shadows; an inverted triangle indicating the neck, horizontal lines for shoulders; a hatchwork of intersecting lines to create the planes of his face—the cheekbone; the temple; the brow.
  10. inverted
    being in an upside-down position
    The profile had been cubist, clean lines in pen and ink, no shadows; an inverted triangle indicating the neck, horizontal lines for shoulders; a hatchwork of intersecting lines to create the planes of his face—the cheekbone; the temple; the brow.
  11. fecund
    capable of producing offspring or vegetation
    Near her the creek burbles merrily, and together she, the creek, and the fecund beauty of the forest form a scene of such...importance, that’s the word, that I’m pinned perfectly still by it.
  12. ratchet
    move by degrees in one direction only
    The thought of little metal things glued to my teeth for months on end, strung together by a wire that would be ratcheted tighter and tighter, forcing my teeth to shift—unbearable.
  13. incisor
    a tooth for cutting or gnawing
    But I couldn’t have something in my mouth like that—I could barely manage the half-hour dental cleaning twice a year. And for what? So that my left incisor would line up more perfectly? To close the small gap between my two front teeth?
  14. mote
    a tiny piece of anything
    For a small window, it lets in a lot of light. The storm has passed; it’s a bright fresh day. Dust motes wander and spin.
  15. platitude
    a trite or obvious remark
    Auguste doesn’t say, I’m sure whatever you make will be wonderful or any of the other platitudes most people would offer.
Created on Fri Oct 02 21:48:47 EDT 2026 (updated Tue Oct 06 11:16:54 EDT 2026)

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