In a nondescript room far away from the bustling streets of Maryland, USA, a man sits amongst his secrets.

He tediously sieves through his ever-growing pile and every Sunday, he releases 20 of them to the world.

Many have seen these secrets and a few even recognise them as their own. Some weep for those who have suffered pain and a handful laugh at the quirks of others.

The secrets are not the man’s own but of those who needed to share, in the form of postcards. These postcards, so lovingly decorated and heart-wrenchingly honest, were sent to him who is regarded as the secret keeper. There are plenty who call him “the best” because never has he once revealed the names behind those clandestine writings shown for the world to see. Instead, he respects the inner desire that many of us occasionally have of sharing our dirty laundry with others, but cannot do so most of the time because of embarrassing consequences.

When the Sunday has passed, the secret keeper, who fancies himself as Frank Warren, leaves the sanctuary of many, to a blog that goes by the appellation PostSecret, and continues with striking up exhibitions or readying auction pieces from his collection of written whispers to raise money for 1800-SUICIDE (a community crisis centre in the United States).

Frank’s site of secrets has had a whopping 100 million visitors the past 3 years and his pile of secret-laden postcards has grown to more than 1,000 a week.

Never one to rest on his laurels, the secret keeper decided that a new book was called for. The 4th and perhaps most eclectic book in his collection, A Lifetime of Secrets is stashed with secrets drenched in longing and regret, with revelations of false bravado and grown-ups yearning to be children again.

Like Frank’s previous books, PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives, My Secret: A PostSecret Book and The Secret Lives of Men and Women, the new book is beautifully designed, with its cover tied with twine and splashed with some of his many postcards – a design that’s lovely and so very nostalgic.

A Lifetime of Secrets is heavy with the secrets we’ve all been collecting and is less naughty than The Secret Lives of Men and Women but very much more appealing since overt confessions of sexual escapades can be a bit too much to bare. More substantial than the former books, A Lifetime of Secrets is as much a confession as it is a presentation of artwork.

Frank has written nothing, yet he’s the very essence of the book that is almost an archive of human emotions. Words are at the minimum, yet it’s hard not to cry and you’ll lose yourself in the book and find that everyone hauls secrets behind them. If we take the time to understand, allow and comfort, we might live in a world where feelings are not relegated to postcards sent to a stranger.

It might seem a little absurd to pay for A Lifetime of Secrets, beautiful as it is, to assuage what must be an innate curiosity in all of us. After all, the PostSecret website has new secrets every week. But really, who can resist having a semblance of ownership in something as phenomenal as this.

UrbanWire gives A Lifetime of Secrets 4.5 out of 5 stars

His previous book, My Secret: A PostSecret Book, is now available in Singapore and pre-orders for A Lifetime of Secrets can be made at amazon.com.