Vocabulary Building

Indomitable

• Impossible to subdue.
• A warrior's indomitable courage and resilience on the battlefield inspired soldiers to continue fighting.
• A warrior’s indomitable courage and resilience on the battlefield inspired his fellow soldiers to continue fighting.

Befuddle

• To confuse or perplex.
• The magician's sleight of hand tricks befuddled the audience, leaving them in awe.
• The magician’s sleight of hand tricks were so skillful that they befuddled the audience, leaving them in awe of his abilities.

Ineptitude

• Unskillfulness resulting from a lack of training
• A team's repeated mistakes highlighted their ineptitude in playing the game.
• The team’s repeated mistakes and poor performance on the field highlighted their ineptitude in playing the game.

Coy

• Affectedly shy, especially in a playful or provocative way
• She gave a coy smile as she flirted with him, hinting at her interest.
• She gave a coy smile as she flirted with him, hinting at her interest without being to forward.

Reclusive

• Withdrawn from society; seeking solitude
• The famous author lived a reclusive life in the countryside.
• The famous author lived a reclusive life in the countryside, away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Fleeting

• Lasting for a markedly brief time
• Laila caught a fleeting glimpse of the man in the backseat of the Benz.
• As they passed the blue Benz, Laila caught a fleeting glimpse of the man in the backseat: thin, white­ haired, dressed in a dark brown suit, with a white handkerchief triangle in the breast pocket.

Fend

• Withstand the force of something
• Hasina was dispensing advice on how to fend off unattractive suitors.
• Today, Hasina was dispensing advice on how to fend off unat­tractive suitors.

Impish

• Naughtily or annoyingly playful
• She flashed an impish grin and nudged Laila with an elbow.
• Unless, of course”—here she flashed an impish grin and nudged Laila with an elbow—“it’s your young, handsome, one-legged prince who comes knocking.

Oblivious

• Lacking conscious awareness of
• Giti spoke earnestly, oblivious to Hasina's toying.
• “People who’ve been injured because of war,” Giti said earnestly, oblivious to Hasina’s toying.

Slovenly

• Negligent of neatness especially in dress and person
• Mammy materialized with slovenly hair.
• Slowly, in stages, Mammy materialized: first the slovenly hair, then the white, grimacing face, eyes pinched shut against the light, a hand groping for the headboard, the sheets sliding down as she pulled herself up, grunting.

Perfunctory

• Hasty and without attention to detail; not thorough
• The obligatory questions, the perfunctory answers, were both pretending.
• The obligatory questions, the perfunctory answers. Both pretending.

Flaccid

• Drooping without elasticity
• Mammy's hand fell flaccid after tapping her chest.
• Mammy’s hand floated up to her chest, tapped there. “In here. What’s in here.” Then it fell flaccid. “You just don’t know.”

Prosthesis

• A device that replaces a missing part of the body
• His stump got sore at the end of the day when it swelled and didn't fit the prosthesis.
• She’d asked him if his stump hurt, and he said it got sore at the end of the day, when it swelled and didn’t fit the prosthesis like it was supposed to, like a finger in a thimble.

Ruefully

• In a manner expressing pain or sorrow
• He shook his head ruefully about women's freedom.
• Of course, women’s freedom—here, he shook his head ruefully—is also one of the reasons people out there took up arms in the first place.

Pallid

• Pale, as of a person's complexion
• Mammy's heart was like a pallid beach where Laila's footprints would wash away.
• She would never leave her mark on Mammy’s heart the way her brothers had, because Mammy’s heart was like a pallid beach where Laila’s footprints would forever wash away beneath the waves of sorrow that swelled and crashed, swelled and crashed.

Fresco

• A mural done with watercolors on wet plaster
• The monks painted beautiful frescoes along the walls and roofs of their caves.
• The monks, Babi said, painted beautiful frescoes along the walls and roofs of their caves.

Disavowal

• Denial of any connection with or knowledge of
• Running was a disavowal of the sacrifice her sons had made.
• Now that they were shaheed, packing up and run­ning was an even worse affront, a betrayal, a disavowal of the sac­rifice her sons had made.

Thoroughfare

• A public road from one place to another
• Spectators had gathered on both sides of the thoroughfare.
• Spectators had gathered on both sides of the thoroughfare outside the Military Club near Wazir Akbar Khan.

Inconsolable

• Sad beyond comforting
• Giti was Inconsolable.
• They cried then in a three-way embrace. Giti was inconsolable.

Balk

• Refuse to proceed or comply
• The Mujahideen balked at Najibullah's settlement offer.
• Feeling the noose tightening around Kabul, Najibullah tried to reach a settlement with the Mujahideen but the Mujahideen balked.

Vigil

• The rite of staying awake for devotional purposes
• She kept her vigils for the Mujahideen and waited for her sons' enemies to fall.
• She kept her vigils for the Mujahideen and waited for her parade. Waited for her sons’ enemies to fall.

Charismatic

• Possessing an extraordinary ability to attract
• Ahmad Shah Massoud, the Lion of Panjshir, was a charismatic commander.
• And, of course, there was Mammy’s hero, Rabbani’s ally, the brooding, charismatic Tajik commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, the Lion of Panjshir.

Ubiquitous

• Being present everywhere at once
• Massoud's face would become ubiquitous in Kabul.
• Massoud’s handsome, thoughtful face, eyebrow cocked and trademark pakol tilted, would become ubiquitous in Kabul.

Fruition

• The attainment or fulfillment of a plan or objective
• This brought to fruition all those years of waiting for Mammy.
• For Mammy, this was the day she had longed for. This brought to fruition all those years of waiting.

Euphoria

• A feeling of great elation
• Mammy could be as indomitable in her fits of euphoria as in her attacks of rage.
• Mammy could be as indomitable in her fits of euphoria as in her attacks of rage.

Aloofness

• A disposition to be distant and unsympathetic in manner
• All those years of aloofness of cooping herself up and not caring about Laila.
• All those years of aloofness, of cooping her­self up and not caring where Laila went and whom she saw and what she thought...

Bantering

• Cleverly amusing in tone
• They talked in loud bantering voices about the Mujahideen's plan.
• They drank tea and smoked and talked in loud bantering voices about the Mujahideen’s plan.

Impetus

• A force that makes something happen
• Laila learned that the impetus for Giti's transformation was an eighteen-year-old boy.
• Laila learned eventually that the impetus for this transformation was an eighteen-year-old boy whose attention Giti had caught.

Irreverence

• A mental attitude showing lack of due respect
• He infected the atmosphere with his half-grinning, masculine irreverence.
• He seemed to take pleasure in not being welcome here, in infect­ing this female atmosphere with his half-grinning, masculine irreverence.

Repertoire

• A collection of works that an artist or company can perform
• This pose was a new entry in his repertoire.
• This was a new entry in his repertoire of poses: back to the wall, arms crossed, cig­arette dangling from the corner of his mouth, his good leg casu­ally bent.

Disheveled

• In disarray; extremely disorderly
• Tariq was grimacing, his hair disheveled, his leg come undone.
• Later that evening, Laila thought of how the melee had top­pled over, with men falling on top of one another, amid yelps and cries and shouts and flying punches, and, in the middle of it, a grimacing Tariq, his hair disheveled, his leg come undone, trying to crawl out.

Suffuse

• Become overspread as with a fluid, a color, or light
• Laila's dreams were suffused with fire.
• Laila’s dreams were suffused with fire and detached limbs and the moaning of the wounded.

Pulverize

• Make into a powder by breaking up or cause to become dust
• The shelling pulverized entire blocks.
• The shelling knocked down power lines, pulverized entire blocks of shops and homes.

Unfathomable

• Impossible to come to understand
• She couldn't get around the unfathomable reality that Giti wasn't alive anymore.
• She couldn’t get around the unfathomable reality that Giti wasn’t alive anymore.

Rancor

• A feeling of deep and bitter anger and ill-will
• The air was choked with rancor and despair.
• But Laila was thinking of Mammy, as obstinate and uncompromising as the Mujahideen, the air around her choked with rancor and despair, and she was thinking of Babi, who had long surrendered, who made such a sad, pathetic opponent to Mammy.

Obligation

• The social force that binds you to a course of action
• She could not wipe away the obligations of her life.
• He knew she could not wipe away the obliga­tions of her life any more than he could his, but it went on, his pleadings and her rebuttals, his proposals and her apologies, his tears and hers.

Unremitting

• Uninterrupted in time and indefinitely long continuing
• The ache of his absence was her unremitting companion.
• She would not miss him as she did now, when the ache of his absence was her unremitting companion—like the phantom pain of an amputee.

Imprudence

• A lack of caution in practical affairs
• Their astonishing imprudence.
• The spontaneity of it. Their astonishing imprudence.

Garish

• Tastelessly showy
• The horizon lit up in garish shades.
• She lay in bed and watched the horizon light up in garish shades of orange and yellow.

Lethargic

• Deficient in alertness or activity
• Her eyes had a lethargic, faraway look.
• There was a reluctance in her movements, and her eyes had a lethargic, faraway look in them.

Brusquely

• In a blunt direct manner
• She tossed it brusquely on a pile of clothes.
• She tossed it brusquely on a pile of clothes.

Lurch

• Move abruptly
• The ground lurched beneath her feet.
• The ground lurched beneath her feet.

Shard

• A broken piece of a brittle artifact
• A thousand shards of glass flew around her.
• A big burning chunk of wood whipped by. So did a thousand shards of glass, and it seemed to Laila that she could see each individual one flying all around her, flipping slowly end over end, the sunlight catching in each.

Gibberish

• Unintelligible talking
• She spoke gibberish and cried out.
• Sometimes she spoke gibberish, cried out, called out names Mariam did not recognize.

Impunity

• Exemption from punishment or loss
• The youngest embraced his friends' air of impunity.
• The youngest was also the quietest, the one who seemed reluctant to wholeheartedly embrace his friends’ air of impunity.