Translated by Lucy Rand.
When Yui loses her mother and daughter in a 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 travel there from miles around.
Soon Yui makes 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 like it is breaking.
Lucy Rand (Translator): Lucy Rand is a teacher, editor and translator from Norfolk, UK. She has been living in the countryside of Oita in south-west Japan for three years.
Published in paperback 4th March 2021 by Manilla Press.
From the cover of the book:
Picture an old disused telephone box in a beautiful garden, not found easily.When Yui loses her mother and daughter in a 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 travel there from miles around.
Soon Yui makes 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 like it is breaking.
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Yui is a woman trapped in a world of grief after losing her daughter and mother in the Tohoku tsunami of 2011. Although life must somehow continue, Yui does not know how she will ever cope with her overwhelming loss. Until she hears about a magical garden where an old disused telephone box has become the focus for others like her. It seems that using this telephone to speak to those they have lost has brought comfort to the people who have journeyed there, and Yui decides to make the pilgrimage herself to see if this mysterious place can help her too.
When Yui reaches her destination, she cannot find the courage to actually enter the rickety phone booth and try its healing properties for herself, but she does meet many others who come to speak to dead friends and relatives and learns their stories, including bereaved husband Takeshi.
Takeshi and Yui share a connection, and their growing friendship helps them both learn how to cope with their deep personal sorrow - especially when Yui meets Takeshi's daughter, Hana, who has not spoken since she lost her mother. Love finds a spark among the ashes of grief, and Yui, Takeshi and Hana help each other to forge a future together.
The Phone Box At The Edge Of The World is a powerful and poignant novel that examines how people deal with loss and learn to overcome grief, and is based upon the true story of the Japanese garden of Bell Gardia where pilgrims come to speak into the Wind Phone to help them come to terms with bereavement.
The structure of the novel is quite unusual, with chapters telling the stories of Yui, Takeshi, and the other people they meet, broken up with flashbacks, lists of momentos and even fragments of conversations with lost loved ones - which almost seem to float by on the breeze like leaves in the garden that houses the Wind Phone. This does take some getting used to, but it adds nicely to the atmosphere of mysticism that pervades the book - and despite the fact that Laura Imai Messina is Italian by birth, it is very Japanese in nature, and clearly comes from her love for her adopted country.
There are some moments when the pace of the story is perhaps a little slow, and there are a few characters who only have fleeting parts, but even so, the imagery used throughout is beautiful, and the romance between Yui and Takeshi, and the establishment of their own little family unit with Hana at the heart, is enchanting - and the whole piece rounds off with the most wonderful ending that made my heart burst and my eyes brim with tears.
This novel does elicit strong emotion, and will inevitably bring to mind memories of your own lost loved ones. I cried at various points while reading this book, and would advise some caution if you are suffering from a recent loss, but there are many moments of great joy too and the message of hope that this book imparts at its conclusion is very comforting and thoroughly uplifting.
The Phone Box At The Edge Of The World is available to buy from your favourite book retailer now.
Thank you to Manilla Press for sending me a peperback copy of this book in return for an honest review and to Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the author:
Laura Imai Messina was born in Rome, Italy but has been living in Japan for the last 15 years. She works between Tokyo and Kamakura, whef their re she lives with her Japanese husband and two children. She took a Master’s in Literature at the International Christian University of Tokyo and a PhD in Comparative Literature at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. The Phone Box at the Edge of the World has been sold in over 21 territories.
About the translator:
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