The Phone Box at the Edge of the World by Laura Imai Messina

Blurb

"We all have something to tell those we have lost . . .

When Yui loses her mother and daughter in the tsunami, she wonders how she will ever carry on. Yet, in the face of this unthinkable loss, life must somehow continue. Then one day she hears about a man who has an old disused telephone box 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 box spreads, people will travel there from miles around.

Soon Yui will make her own pilgrimage to the phone box, too. But once there she cannot bring herself to speak into the receiver. Then she finds Takeshi, a bereaved husband whose own daughter has stopped talking in the wake of their loss.

What happens next will warm your heart, even when it feels as though it is breaking."

Published June 25th 2020 by Manilla Press (first published January 14th 2020)
With thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Review

Set after the tsunami which devastated Fukushima in Japan in 2011, the story follows Yui who lost her mother and daughter in the tsunami. The story moves back and forth in time between the days immediately following the disaster and the years that follow.

When Yui discovers the phone box hidden in rural Japan where people go to talk to their lost loved ones, she makes the long journey to see if it will help her, but when she gets there she doesn't feel ready to speak yet. She starts to build new connections with the other people who visit the phone box in Bell Gardia who speak into the wind to feel closer to their loved ones. The author tells their stories tenderly and sensitively.

Originally published in Italian as Quel che affidiamo al vento (What we entrust to the wind), the book is based on a real place run by a couple in Japan which can be visited by those who are grieving.

This is a really beautiful novel exploring loss, grief and finding hope when so much has been lost. I gave this 4 out of 5.

The Author

Laura Imai Messina è nata a Roma e si è laureata in Lettere all’Università la Sapienza.

Si è trasferita a Tokyo a ventitré anni per perfezionare la lingua e da allora abita stabilmente in Giappone. Ha ottenuto un dottorato di primo livello in Culture Comparate presso l’International Christian University con una tesi sulla scrittrice giapponese Ogawa Yōko e ha conseguito presso la Tokyo University of Foreign Studies un PhD con una tesi comparativa sul tema della materialità nella letteratura giapponese ed europea. Attualmente è docente a contratto di lingua italiana in alcune delle più prestigiose università della capitale.

Laura Imai Messina was born in Rome and graduated from the Sapienza University of Rome with a degree in literature.

She transferred to Tokyo to perfect the language and now lives permanently in Japan. She obtained a first level doctorate in Comparative Culture at International Christian University with a thesis on the Japanese writer Ogawa Yōko and at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies she obtained a PhD with a comparative thesis on the subject of materiality in Japanese and European literature. She is currently a contract teacher of Italian in some of the most prestigious universities in the capital.

Website: https://www.lauraimaimessina.com/