In Mayank Gupta’s Debut Novel, Stillness Speaks Louder Than Words
India-West Staff Reporter
LOS ANGELES, CA – In his striking debut novel ‘Voice in the Waiting Room’ (Rupa Publications), Pittsburgh-based psychiatrist Dr. Mayank Gupta turns his lens inward—toward the fragile intersections of mind, migration, and meaning. Known for his expertise in cross-cultural psychiatry, the doctor brings the same psychological acuity that defines his medical career to this work of fiction, crafting a narrative that is as introspective as it is universal.
A work of immigration fiction, ‘Voice in the Waiting Room’ explores the intimate terrain of displacement—how the experience of leaving one’s homeland blurs boundaries, dissolves identities, and reshapes the quest for belonging. Set largely within the corridors of a U.S. hospital, the novel moves quietly through the lives of those who inhabit its spaces. Rather than leaning on dramatic plot twists, Gupta builds emotional resonance through subtle gestures, unspoken silences, and moments of stillness that accumulate into profound insight.
At its heart, the novel is a meditation on identity and belonging, asking what it means to find wholeness when home itself becomes an abstraction. Gupta’s prose—lyrical yet restrained—traces the fault lines between repetition and intimacy, distraction and loneliness, revealing how the search for meaning is often clouded by the noise of everyday life. His characters, caught between past and present, must learn to live in the in-between: the waiting rooms of immigration, memory, and the mind.
With psychological depth and empathetic storytelling, the writer illuminates how the human spirit navigates the ambiguities of modern existence.
Dr. Gupta, a triple board-certified child psychiatrist, has over two decades of international experience in clinical and academic psychiatry. A Distinguished Fellow of both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Gupta trained in Bombay, London, and New York before settling in Pittsburgh, where he continues to serve as a clinician and leader dedicated to advancing mental health care.
With ‘Voice in the Waiting Room’, Gupta steps seamlessly into the literary world.
