The Lost Year
Books | Juvenile Fiction / Historical / Europe
Katherine Marsh
*A National Book Award Finalist*From the author of Nowhere Boy - called “a resistance novel for our times” by The New York Times - comes a brilliant middle-grade survival story that traces a harrowing family secret back to the Holodomor, a terrible famine that devastated Soviet Ukraine in the 1930s.Thirteen-year-old Matthew is miserable. His journalist dad is stuck overseas indefinitely, and his mom has moved in his one-hundred-year-old great-grandmother to ride out the pandemic, adding to his stress and isolation.But when Matthew finds a tattered black-and-white photo in his great-grandmother’s belongings, he discovers a clue to a hidden chapter of her past, one that will lead to a life-shattering family secret. Set in alternating timelines that connect the present-day to the 1930s and the US to the USSR, Katherine Marsh’s latest novel sheds fresh light on the Holodomor – the horrific famine that killed millions of Ukrainians, and which the Soviet government covered up for decades.An incredibly timely, page-turning story of family, survival, and sacrifice, inspired by Marsh’s own family history, The Lost Year is perfect for fans of Ruta Sepetys' Between Shades of Gray and Alan Gratz's Refugee.Lexile 710 L.
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Author
Katherine Marsh
Pages
368
Publisher
Roaring Brook Press
Published Date
2023-01-17
ISBN
1250313619 9781250313614
Community ReviewsSee all
"This was absolutely incredible. The twist completely threw me off!"
N m
Neve miller
"4.5 stars <br/><br/>I hated this book when I was 50% of the way through because I thought that everyone (Matthew and a little bit Mila) was being bratty. Then abruptly the entire narrative shifted, and it picked up, and it twisted and the characters grew deeply as people. This is actually an extremely good exploration of the concepts of trauma on survivors, and particularly the way that they do or do not communicate their stories. I'm going to be thinking about this for a while, especially in relation to my own grandmother and the Cultural Revolution. <br/><br/>My only complaints lie in the writing itself - it's just kind of poor. Narratively extremely sound, just an unenjoyable writing style. That, and the decision to anchor it with Matthew in COVID. Matthew's narration feels extremely out of place in this story because the other kids are thinking so deeply about the world they're living in, and Matthew says "I hate my mom for taking my Switch! How will I possibly survive this pandemic!" I understand that the plot device of COVID allows for Matthew to have some extra time to spend with his grandmother, but I feel like that could've been worked in to summer break, too. Supposedly, there are parallels between the famine and between Matthew's experience of the pandemic, but Matthew's character doesn't have the depth to communicate that for me. It wasn't until the final chapter that I actually felt like he was a part of the story - but maybe that was the point."
ether