· Paperback: 200 pages

· Publisher: Notion Press; 1 edition (2018)

· Language: English

· ISBN-10: 1643249606

· ISBN-13: 978-1643249605

THE PLOT IN BRIEF-

And We Walked Away revolves around the friendship of three friends in college, with a Love story blooming in their hearts. It connects to the kind of boys who are in love and keep trying to convince the same girl in different ways for a long time, not moving on in life. Also, it talks about the kind of girls who don’t believe in love but also, don’t want to take advantage of a boy’s feelings. The girls who are not conservative but don’t want to pursue love.

Abhimanyu, a well-known author returns to his engineering college in Bangalore after a decade and notices a lot of changes in the college over this period. It reminds him of how he met his ladylove, Naina on the first day of college and fell in love with her at the first sight. Abhimanyu, being an impulsive, stubborn and impatient guy decides to propose her in a rush. She doesn’t believe in love and has her own reasons for it. Abhimanyu with the help of his friends Aarush and Dev proposes and tries to convince Naina many times in unusual ways but he fails miserably. However, a trick helps to melt her heart, but destiny has a different plan.

THE TITLE-

We cultivate love when we allow our most vulnerable and powerful selves to be deeply seen and known, and when we honour the spiritual connection that grows from that offering with trust, respect, kindness and affection.
Love is not something we give or get; it is something that we nurture and grow, a connection that can only be cultivated between two people when it exists within each one of them – we can only love others as much as we love ourselves. The title not only reflects n Love but also on several emotional parameters on which the plot revolves around.
Shame, blame, disrespect, betrayal, and the withholding of affection damage the roots from which love grows. Love can only survive these injuries if they are acknowledged, healed and rare. After all relationships had sell-by dates. Sometimes, the ones with the most passion were the ones to burn out faster. Others had a sweet and long-winding coil which burned with slow amicability. At times, it was true, people rekindled a dying ember with a new flame. But they hardly ever noticed the rekindling had come after some time of estrangement – whether physical or emotional. Because people needed newness to make a thing last indefinitely. To make it really last. People were meant to stay in your life. There was a reason for all encounters. And relationships had to be cosseted, no matter their shelf life. But they had to be allowed to change shape and form. It had to be given space to grow into something different.

I feel the title is brilliant and to the context.

REVIEW OF THE BOOK-

What exactly is Love? Well, that is what the entire book all about. But to give you a crunch of it, When you find a guy who calls you beautiful instead of hot, who calls you back when you hang up on him, who will stand in front of you when other’s cast stones, or will stay awake just to watch you sleep, who wants to show you off to the world when you are in sweats, who will hold your hand when you’re sick, who thinks you’re pretty without makeup, the one who turns to his friends and say, ‘that’s her’, the one that would bear your rejection because losing you means losing his will to live, who kisses you when you screw up, watches the stars and names one for you and will hold and rock that baby for hours so you can sleep…..you love him all over again. Abhimanyu and Naina were perhaps one the classic examples from the plot itself. It should be a privilege to be able to say “I love you” to someone. It shouldn’t be something people say just because they feel like it. A privilege that is earned. They say you have to earn the right to be loved; no, love is unconditional, if you love someone, they don’t have to earn it. But. The right to tell someone that you love them? That has to be earned. You have to earn the right to be believed

But what happens if the love gets rejected or vetoed? When someone rejects you, for whatever reason, that rejection reflects their wants, not your limitations. you are in no way defined by the rejection, or the acceptance, of anyone else. your worth depends on no one. and as hard as it can be to see it as such, there is just as big a gift in not connecting with those who don’t see your value, as there is in uniting with those who do. Love can’t be separated but united by the catalysis effect of refusal. “Love is wanting to be with someone all the time. It is accepting the other person with all good qualities and bad and not wanting to change any of them. It is wanting to give affection and approval and comfort and everything that is oneself, demanding nothing in return. It is – love is very difficult, Julia. It is an ideal, rarely achieved in reality because we are all selfish and imperfect beings. It is a dream, a goal, something to be aimed for.

I also loved the way Hope was depicted in the plot in the backdrop of Love. A star falls from the sky and into your hands. Then it seeps through your veins and swims inside your blood and becomes every part of you. And then you have to put it back into the sky. And it’s the most painful thing you’ll ever have to do and that you’ve ever done. But what’s yours is yours. Whether it’s up in the sky or here in your hands. And one day, it’ll fall from the sky and hit you in the head real hard and that time, you won’t have to put it back in the sky again.

Connection does play a pivotal role in the plot. Our need for language, conversation, and definition goes beyond the wish to put things right. Through words we come to know the other person–and to be known. This knowing is at the heart of our deepest longings for intimacy and connection with others. How relationships unfold with the most important people in our lives depends on courage and clarity in finding voice. This is equally true for our relationship with our self. Even when we are not being heard, we may still need to know the sound of our own voice saying out loud what we really think. And this is what the characterisation focused on.

Overall it was an amazing read.

RATINGS-

Overall I would like to rate the book 42 on a scale of 50.

4 stars out of 5

1. Originality of the plot and sub plots- 9/10

2. Net emotions in the story- 8/10

3. Usage of words and phrases-8/10

4. The title, cover and the illustration-8/10

5. The net impact on the readers- 9/10

Overall, it’s worth reading

Reviewed by-

Sayan Basak

Kolkata