TITLE: Listen to your Heart: The London Adventure

AUTHOR: Ruskin Bond

PAGE EXTENT: 104

PUBLISHER: Puffin Books(Penguin Random House India)

GENRE: Memoir

MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

SOURCE: Received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

‘I followed my heart instead of my head. It is something I have done all my life.’

Shortly before his eighteenth birthday, Ruskin embarks on a literary journey and reaches England after charting unknown waters. Greeted by the uncertainties of a new city, he muses over his loneliness, switches jobs, falls in love, befriends the ocean and relentlessly chases a big dream!

What follows next is the metamorphosis of a journal entry into a novel as we time-travel to the fascinating events that led to the making of his iconic book, The Room on the Roof.

Capturing memorable experiences from young Ruskin’s life, Listen to Your Heart is an inspiration for aspiring young writers, a meditation on embracing fears, seizing every opportunity but most importantly living one’s dreams.

Having read Ruskin Bond’s short stories and excerpts during my school days, I wanted to read his memoir and get a glimpse of his early days and how he became one of the best authors we have today! 

Listen to Your Heart is a short, heartfelt memoir by Ruskin Bond which is the fifth and final book in the series offering us an insight into Ruskin’s childhood and adolescence. 

Peppered with beautiful artwork on almost every other page, reading this book was an experience in itself! Ruskin describes his adolescent period in England during which he had to flit from one job to another, all while penning his first novel, The Room on the Roof. And let’s not forget the feelings of the heart, which is a whole other ball game altogether! 

Ruskin goes on to describe how the world of publishing is in no way a bed of roses and is brimming with obstacles at every stage, but come what may, never stop writing! Through his ordeal, he shows young budding authors how perseverance and sheer will ensure that you have your name on the cover of a book someday. A huge shout-out to the illustrator Mihir Joglekar for making the story come alive on the page!

If there’s one take-away from this book, it’s literally the title: LISTEN TO YOUR HEART, things will fall into place one day!

Thanks to Penguin Random House India for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review. 🥰

Have you read books by Ruskin Bond before? If yes, let me know in the comments! If not, what are you waiting for?