Chapters 47 through 62 Summary

In chapter forty-seven, Mrs. Rimas receives a letter and learns through a coded message that her husband is alive. There's a reference to Psalms 102 and Jonas reads the passage from the Bible that ends with the words, "I am withered like the grass." The old bald man says he is starving and is also "withered," and Andrius adds that the man is at least alive. Lina realizes Andrius wishes the same could be said of his own father.

In chapter forty-eight, Lina learns that Jonas is very ill but Kretsky and the other soldiers won't let her leave her work to go to him. Lina arrives home to find Elena already there and Jonas so ill he is barely conscious. Mr. Lukas says Jonas is suffering the effects of scurvy from malnutrition. Andrius arrives soon with a can of tomatoes and...