A Thousand Unspoken Words
Blurb
A hero, a person who displays great courage for the greater good, can also fall. But what happens to a fallen hero? A Thousand Unspoken Words is the unique journey of a hero who falls.
The champion of the underdogs, the writer who uses the nom de plume Musafir is famous in Kolkata. His incisive criticism of the injustices around him earn him many enemies but he holds his ideals above all else. Scathing attacks at his books and a night of hide and seek from political goons leads Musafir unto a path he never liked, faraway from his ideals. He runs away and chooses the comforts of money over the travails of following one’s ideals. The hero falls.
But Tilottama, passionate fan’s hopes don’t. When he comes back after many years, emotions, love and lust take charge and an affair brews. Will she bring back her hero? Will he rise again? Or will the thousand untold words, the many stories of the ideal writer be lost forever?
Celebrities Praising the Book
“A hero, a person who displays great courage for the greater good, can also fall. But what happens to a fallen hero? A Thousand Unspoken Words is the unique journey of a hero who falls. The storytelling is almost cinematic and as you read the book, you actually feel as if the scenes are coming alive in front of you. A page turner.”
– RJ Arvind,
94.3 Radio One
“Words speak. Yes. We have heard this often. But Paulami’s specialty lies in her words that do more than that. They paint a picture that one can actually see, touch and feel the emotions that she wants to bring to us. That is what she does with ‘A Thousand Unspoken Words’. It touches you; it shakes you to the core. The journey of the protagonist, the complexity of it reminds me of the great filmmaker Gurudutt’s life, where the art ate the artist.”
– Raghuvir Shekhawat
Veteran Film and Television Writer
“Paulami DuttaGupta is fascinated with creativity and its drivers. Is it solitude? Is it madness? Is it love? Is it romance? Is it something apart from the self – a “transmission”? Or does it come from within? Or from a muse. Or from a 'Nemesis'. And what happens to a writer when he gets locked within his own process? It’s a terrifying prospect, and one that Dutta examines with panache, taking us into complex, dark and the nightmarish corridors of a creator's mind.
I’d recommend Dutta’s fresh and deep study in the labyrinthine corridors, in which all of us are trapped.”
- Vivek Agnihotri
Filmmaker. Writer. Motivational speaker
“It is no secret that I am not much into reading books. But ‘A Thousand Unspoken Words’ reminds me of what Henry David Thoreau said “Read the best books first or you may not have a chance to read them at all.”
– Pradip Kurbah
National Award Winning Director
Book Reviews
"A Thousand Unspoken Words is literary fiction, if I HAD TO label it, but otherwise I’d just leave it at being a very good story, well-told. This story doesn’t have heroes and heroines. Riddhimaan and Tilottama’s love story is not a story of battles with family or society, but it’s a story of battling with one’s own demons. In this story, Riddhimaan is not a prince charming and Tilottama is not a damsel in distress. If anything, this love story is as close to reality as one can get without being melodramatic about romance."
- Namitha Varma-Rajesh, Poet, Content writer.
Published in over 30 literary journals, including with the Sahitya Akademi.
"The book has subtle undertones of how politics affect the lives of ordinary people."
- The ForthRight
"A Thousand Unspoken Words s a delight to read. You can’t help falling in love with Musafir and you can’t get enough of Tilottama. In Riddhiman aka Musafir and Tilottama, Paulami has captured the essence of the modern generation. This is the generation which is torn between its ideologies and the society. This is the generation which is confused but also wishes to leave the world a better place. This is also the generation torn between ideologies and realities.
I would call it a modern love story, a refreshing retreat from all the crap we get served these days in the name of a love story. It’s a story where love forms the part of an integral struggle and is not portrayed as some miracle, bonding agent for two people."
- Anisha Singh - Morsels & Juices
Read the Full Review
"This book left me with a desire to immediately search out other works by this celebrated, noteworthy author. Her success on this effort is well deserved and the commendation she has received is most definitely earned. Ms. Duttagupta distinguishes herself amongst her contemporaies with this empathetic and skillfully guided novel. She will undoubtedly continue to amass praise and this novel will continue to become acclaimed."
- Ophelia E. West, President, The Jones West Group, Inc.
"The author has wonderfully woven the tale amidst the backdrop of Kolkata, Darjeeling and Shantiniketan. The story telling makes you feel as if you are watching a classic romantic movie painted with shades of mystery and emotions."
- Rahul Ahuja
‘A Thousand Unspoken Words’ is one of those novels that will keep you awake all night. The pages turn on their own, and you lose sense of the time. There are chapters, happy and sad, and they call out to us in hushed voices. This is a story that needs to be read, and told. Moreover, this is a narrative that is felt right from the heart, a journey beyond a thousand words, where fiction blends with reality, and the line between them blurs.
- Amrit Sinha, Top Indian Blogger for three consecutive years.
Read the Full Review
"ATUW is just the kind of romance, one would love to cuddle up with, on these cold winter nights. And to boot, it will leave you with a wonderful aftertaste of fantastic storytelling and characters you’d like to mull over for days."
- Radhika Maira Tabrez, Author, Blogger
"This novel is by no means an easy read. Not following the thread of boy meets girl and falls in love, this novel is more about the aftermath of falling in love. When you fall in love with a person and he changes, it is fine. But when you are bound together by idealism and belief - to let go of all that is one of the most difficult thing a girl can do. Moreover, Ridddhimaan is one of the most selfish characters I have read about. His self pity was maddening and his self loathing, to me, was degrading. Which makes him all the more realistic to the readers."
- Rubina Ramesh, Author, Blogger, Founder of The Book Club