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Writer's pictureJoAnne Saldanha

Woebegone's Warehouse of Words

Author: Payal Kapadia

Publisher: Hachette India

Book Review


As I sit down to write this, I realise that I am at a loss for words. 


However, my loss of words is completely different from the kind of loss the people living in the dystopian world created by Payal Kapadia felt in her book ‘Woebegone’s Warehouse of Words’. 


Can you imagine living in a world where you know you have something to say but you just don’t have the words for it? Literally. Like when something is on the tip of your tongue, but you are unable to verbalise it.

You would have to place an order for a word, on a device worn on your wrist, which would be delivered by drones.

Words like awesome, lovely, great, nice, and wonderful…words that the great leader of Word Bloc, Gunther Glib want spoken are affordable to buy. 

However, if I needed to criticise this book, I would have found the words I need, harder to buy, or would not find them at all because the powers that be may have conveniently ‘erased’ them.


My order would go through ‘Woebegone’s Warehouse of Words’, be packed in a box, with a sleepy word crammed inside, picked up by a drone, and delivered to me. Only then would I be able to vocalise the word that I own.

The words are living beings. Yes, living and breathing, and look like us, except that they have ink running in their veins. If no ‘Speaker’ ‘buys’ them to ‘speak’ them, they could fade away. 

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 Asha and Zeb, regularly break the law by getting together to create provocative graffiti. Once noticed they are marked by the ‘Word Bloc’ and its leader Gunther Glib who believes that power means controlling what people can say, even if it means ‘erasing’ words and ‘silencing’ the Speakers. 


As Asha and Zeb rebel against Gunther's oppressive rule, they meet a rag-tag group of words, including a dying one, and set out off to find the ‘Word Wood’ where words first came to life. Travelling on the ‘Lan-guage’ train announced which is setting off for-Boding (reminiscent of the Nazi trains heading to camp) they escape ‘word eaters’....scavengers who cannot afford to buy words,  sight a 'Thesaurus Rex' at the sight of whom they immediately begin to talk in synonyms and together journey to find freedom and uncover the truth.

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It took me a while to ‘get into’ the book, but once I did, it was hard to put down. Payal Kapadia has created very believable characters, as imaginative as they may be. The plot is pacy and engaging. Now and again, I found myself stopping…gobsmacked, amazed, astounded, dumbfounded…(and I haven’t even met the Thesaurus Rex yet!!) at the author's absolute brilliance, her clever wordplay, and engaging plot. I love books about books and words, but even more, I love books that boldly and cleverly comment on the current state of society as this one does, about what is rampant in our world today….censorship, oppression, and control. It highlights freedom of speech and what could happen if it was curbed it, and holds a mirror up to our easy acceptance of changes for the ‘greater good’ without question. 


Right from the strikingly beautiful cover to Payal’s thought-provoking afterword, I loved every bit of this book. Suitable for older children…15+ and adults, this is a book I want on our library shelf and one I know I will recommend often. 


Libraries are spaces to find answers, but more importantly, they are places to raise questions. When I curate a library collection or plan a library program, I ensure that the books on the shelves or the books being read aloud do just this. 

This is why books like 'Woebegone's Warehouse of Words' by Payal Kapadia will find a place on my library shelf. 


I received this book from the author, with whom I shared my review policy.


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