Where Words Once Were

Young Orhan lives in a world where words are both very precious and very dangerous. Only 1000 of them can exist: new ones are forbidden, and anything newly invented takes the place of an existing word, which is then illegal to say. Those who disobey the rules are punished in the strongest way possible. They lose their right to speak and to be spoken of; they become only "…"--a condition that causes them to slowly fade away. When Orhan accidentally takes a pen (a mighty weapon indeed!) from school, he sets in motion an adventure to reclaim lost words.