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The international bestselling novel sold in 21 countries, about grief, mourning, and the joy of survival, inspired by a real phone booth in Japan with its disconnected "wind" phone, a place of pilgrimage and solace since the 2011 tsunami When Yui loses both her mother and her daughter in the tsunami, she begins to mark the passage of time from that date onward: Everything is relative to March 11, 2011, the day the tsunami tore Japan apart, and when grief took hold of her life. Yui struggles to continue on, alone with her pain. Then, one day she hears about a man who has an old disused telephone booth in his garden. There, those who have lost loved ones find the strength to speak to them and begin to come to terms with their grief. As news of the phone booth spreads, people travel to it from miles around. Soon Yui makes her own pilgrimage to the phone booth, too. But once there she cannot bring herself to speak into the receiver. Instead she finds Takeshi, a bereaved husband whose own daughter has stopped talking in the wake of her mother's death. Simultaneously heartbreaking and heartwarming, The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World is the signpost pointing to the healing that can come after. Laura Imai Messina has made her home in Japan for the last 15 years and works between Tokyo and Kamakura, where she lives with her Japanese husband and two children. She has master's and doctorate degrees from Tokyo University. Translated from the Italian by Lucy Rand, The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World is Laura Imai Messina's English-language debut.… (more)
User reviews
I would like to thank NetGalley and Overlook Press for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This story was such a sweet one to me. I was drawn in by the cover and
Overall, it was a wonderful read with a great ending that leaves you feeling satisfied and happy. It brings up questions that make you think about things in different ways, as well. You will question life nd grieving and where our loved ones are after they pass away and whether they are truly gone. I would for sure recommend this book to others.
(I received an Advanced Readers Copy of this book.)
Not an easy topic to write about, and not one I would have expected to enjoy reading, but the author has crafted something very special here.
It is a simple,
The novel follows several of these people. The main one is Yui Hagasawe who lost her mother and daughter in the tsunami, and meets and becomes friends with a widower, Takeshi Fujita at the garden. They meet with several other people who come to use the phone, and remain close to two teenage boys.
I was astounded to realize that it was 400 pages, because I read most of it in an evening. I hope that Itaru Sasaki's own book about the Phone of the Wind will be published in an English translation.
I found it to be a fairly easy read although I must admit it didn't really grab me. For me, there were too many small characters introduced that didn't really contribute to the overall narrative. Similarly I found too many small
The book was OK, being saved by a premise that was away from the norm. I wonder whether Japanese experience and concepts, written by an Italian living in Japan and then translated into English resulted in something being lost.
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895.636 |