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4.49 AVERAGE
4.49 AVERAGE
I read Katherine Marsh's book Nowhere Boy and loved it, so I was excited to learn of this new release in 2023. The Lost Year is a historical fiction book that addresses an event many people have little to no knowledge of - the Ukrainian famine of the early 1930s. Stories from this horrific time were largely hidden by the Soviet government and propaganda for years, only really surfacing in the last couple of decades.
Marsh's story is related through three narrators: the first two are girls - one living in the United States and the other in Ukraine - in the 1930s. They are cousins, but are not aware of one another at the beginning of the book. The third narrator is a boy named Matthew living in 2020 in the United States just after Covid has sent everyone into isolation. Matthew lives with his mother and his great-grandmother, who has come to live with them due to a fear that she won't survive in a retirement home in the midst of a global pandemic. As it turns out, Matthew's great-grandmother, Gigi, is one of the cousins, and much of the story is revealed as Gigi reluctantly shares what happened in the 1930s through letters, journals, and photographs.
Marsh's story is full of fascinating details about Ukraine soon after it came under the Soviet regime, characters who the reader will care about deeply, and some plot twists and turns that make this a suspenseful page-turner. It is also one more cautionary tale about how important it is to be aware of history so that it isn't repeated. Beautiful writing and a memorable story!
Grades 6 and up.
CC: divorced parents, Covid lockdown, death of loved ones, death in childbirth, climate change, modern main character fights with and is very disrespectful to mom a lot/mom is portrayed as mean and unreasonable for most of the book (no real redemption there either)
In 2020 Matthew is stuck at home during the pandemic and ends up spending time with his great-grandmother who grew up in Russia. The readers joins Matthew in learning the story of his great grandmother's time in 1930s Russia. It is not a happy story and reminded me of Ruta Sepety's book BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY as I discovered another covered up time in Russian history that I hadn't known about. Millions in Ukraine died of starvation because their government caused a preventable famine in an effort to control the people. The irony of the current war in the Ukraine is not lost on me and the author mentions it in the author's note at the end of the book.
While his great-grandmother is struggling with life in Russia her family in the USA is working to get her out. All three stories come together with a satisfying ending. It is important to know this history, despite it being such a dark time.
2023 Popsugar reading challenge #A book about a family