by Pip Williams
Motherless, Esme spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. One day a slip of paper containing the word bondmaid flutters beneath the table. She rescues the slip, and is told that the word means "slave girl." Learning that words relating to women's and common folks' experiences often go unrecorded, Esme begins to collect other words discarded by the dictionary men. As she grows up, Esme begins in earnest to search out words for her own dictionary: the Dictionary of Lost Words.
"Kama mtoto, Esme alitumia utoto wake katika ""Scriptorium,"" kibanda cha bustani huko Oxford, ambapo baba yake na timu ya wataalamu wa kamusi wanachanganya maneno kwa ajili ya kamusi ya kwanza ya Kiingereza ya Oxford." Siku moja kipande cha karatasi chenye neno "mtumishi" kinaruka-ruka chini ya meza. Yeye huokoa karatasi hiyo, na anaambiwa kwamba neno hilo linamaanisha "msichana mtumwa". Akijifunza kwamba maneno yanayohusiana na uzoefu wa wanawake na watu wa kawaida mara nyingi hayarekodi, Esme anaanza kukusanya maneno mengine yaliyotupwa na wanaume wa kamusi. Wakati Esme anapokuwa mkubwa, anaanza kutafuta maneno kwa bidii kwa ajili ya kamusi yake mwenyewe: Kamusi ya Maneno Yaliyopotea.