From the Closet of the Heart - Book Review

From the Closet of the Heart
By Soniya Kapoor
Review By Ila Garg

From the Closet of the Heart, is a collection of letters and short stories compiled by Soniya Kapoor. It is published by Artson Publishing House. These letters and stories are laced with long lost letters and memories, thus, a lot of nostalgia. The cover shows two hands carrying the light in the form of a cracker, symbolizing how on Diwali, people light up their houses amidst the darkness. If I connect this with the book’s theme that would mean lighting up the darkest corners of our hearts and trying to see within to revive the lost and forgotten memories, and the deep seated emotions. The subtitle—A book of love, gratitude, remembrance and apologies—says it all.

Soniya Kapoor, is a career coach and an international recruitment professional. She is the co-founder of CIERO Recruitment LLP. Soniya founded Artson Publishing House with an aim to work for potential writers and guide them to success. It has been almost two and a half years that she has been working with different publishers and authors/writers to help them come up with their writing career. Soniya writes on various emotions and shares her writing on Instagram with her brand name #SecretSoulDesires. She has contributed her work in several writing projects and has been an integral part of literary events and book launch projects. Her motive to take this initiative is to help writers who have potential to do wonders with their words to get published and add many more books to the libraries.

The blurb reads as, “A year and a half ago while cleaning my closet I found a few hand written notes. It reminded me how I used to write notes whenever I had something to say but couldn't really express it well. And that is how the thought of this project popped up in my head and heart, says Soniya Kapoor, compiler and the publisher of the book. We all have stories deep within our hearts, and we desire to share it with our people. These are not just made up stories, these are the words of the soul. Real stories expressing the raw emotions. We all have a couple of messages, saved in the draft box, few apologies written on the pages of our diary, and our confessions written on the last page of the journal. We decided to go a little old school and asked people to share their real-life stories expressing the raw emotions. From the Closet of The Heart - a book of love, gratitude, remembrance, and apologies, is a collection of real-life stories written by writers from the different parts of the world. Stories that are so relatable that you would want to hug the book close to your heart. With this project, we have made an effort to applaud the human emotions...”

The 49 write-ups (stories and letters) that this book has are centered on the theme of seeking closure and confessions. Each piece is well-written and gripped me as a reader. I could find so much to relate to in the book. The pain, the trauma, is extraordinary.

Listing the write-ups here for you all to get a glimpse:

1. To You, With Love
2. A Token of Love
3. Dear Dad
4. Open Letter To An Ex Best Friend
5. My First Crush
6. An Apology
7. A Night That Never Slept
8. How To Reach Gangtok
9. A Letter To My Grandmother
10. From The Closet of Love
11. Defriendship
12. Thunder
13. A Letter To My Mom
14. A Letter
15. You Are Not The One I Loved
16. Dear Dad
17. Awaiting Confession
18. Two Voices, One Soul
19. I Too Had A Family
20. Blood Bonds Binding
21. A Letter To My Son
22. My Happily Ever After
23. Contentment & Completeness
24. And So, I Put an End to Your Chapter
25. A Night To Remember
26. Pilgrimage of Eternal Love
27. ‘Forever’, Love
28. The Autumn
29. Losing Relations That Matters The Most
30. She’s Mozart
31. Time Never Waits
32. M…maa
33. My Grandpa
34. Who I Used To Be
35. Farewell To Life
36. Journey From A Blank Canvas To A New Colourful Life
37. Finding Myself
38. WATER
39. A Little Less Than I Love You
40. “KEEP SMILING”, She Had Said
41. Pain, worthy or worthless?
42. For The Known Unknown Friend
43. A Trip That Changed Her Life
44. Tribute
45. Growing Up
46. “My Other Half”
47. From A GIRL’S Diary
48. The Boy. Performance. In-Between & And what did he portray?
49. An Epitome of Love

Now it’s difficult for me to list out what I liked about each and every story here but believe me, the book is worth your time. The authors have successfully portrayed deep and hidden emotions, the real events that moved them. The language is simple and easy to comprehend. Readers will find the write-ups quite gripping. I myself found them quite engaging. The subject is tackled beautifully by the skillful authors who have inked their real emotions without a tinge of make-belief.

However, as you must have noticed just in the titles, the editing forms a weak point of the book. I have highlighted some obvious editing errors in the titles. Other than that unnecessary punctuation and capitalisation is a turn off too. Throughout the book, the editing is given a back seat. Being an editor, these things kill my interest in the book. The emotions were the only factor that made me hold on till the end.

Further, this 133-page book is good enough to shed light on the way we live, the things that we let go in the race of life, the hidden secrets that we all have. It’s overall a compelling book and gives a lot to reflect on.

Ratings: 3.5/5

Buying Link: Amazon