This book took me very long to read, simply because it was about such a painful topic. At the start of the book, there is a lot of talk about mass grief and loss of loved ones because of natural disaster. I remember crying quite a few times while reading it, so I kept abandoning it and coming back after a few months. After about a third of it, it was more about healing and it developed into quite a sweet story of mending families, being there for one another. It was truly a touching story.

And I just realized how symbolic it is that I finished this story today, specifically on March 11, 2021. The book was about the aftermath of the events of the disaster of March 11, 2011. I wasn't timing it especially so. I just picked it back up today. I've now got shivers running down my spine. It's specifically ten years today, and I can hear a strong wind howling outside the window. Uncanny...

I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.

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.

First of all I would like to say that I love the title of the book, mysterious and classic it makes you wonder about the story behind it… Will it be a sad or a sweet one? With a happy or a bittersweet ending? Of course, you’ll have to read the book if you want to know all of it!
What a beautiful book, full of little stories and bitter sweet moments, that makes the reader to remember the power of love, loss and friendship.
We all have someone that is not longer with us, can you imagine a phone box which allows you talk to them again? How far would you go to say the last words to your beloved one?
This is the story of Youri and Takeshi, they both lost someone in the 2011 tsunami and they are doing the pilgrimage to the phone both, they will have a connection in this grief and need to survive that will make the reader impossible to stop reading.
I can’t say that this is “happy book” but it’s full of hope and acceptance, is never easy to be the one that remains when your loved ones past away, and you’ll feel this sadness through all the story but never forget the memories you have, they are still here, to make you happy and remember forever the good moments.
This had been a delicate and special read, told with a special softness you’ll feel attracted to all the memories and stories told in the book, they will make you drop a tear but let you a smile on your face too.
Are you ready for “The Phone Box at the Edge of the World”?

This is one of those stories that leaves an indelible mark, it is a book you will want to press upon others and recommend as much as possible, even though you are aware you about to unleash a torrent of tears and a flood of emotions.

That the phone box is based upon a true story, and rooted in the devastation of the 2011 tsunami, makes it a vital and heartrending read-these are the stories of people who do not have an ending to their tales, the missing remain gone, but in the gap between here and gone lies the potential for the loved ones to be somewhere.

So why not at the end of this non descript black phone in the middle of nowhere?

Yui's story is one of grief, loss and a lack of an ending, a flowing river through which both her 3 year old daughter and mother have existed and now no longer do. The ripping up of her roots from the generation above, and below Yui leaves her unanchored, and lost.

The phone box is a story she has heard of in her radio show exploring how people cope, live with and occasionally, move on, from grief. Whether by death of a relationship, death of a loved one in circumstances explained or mysterious, the coping mechanisms that we have and use to get through the worst of times an often exacerbate grief. For if relief can be obtained by cleaning, cooking, creating, doing, does that ability to feel momentary respite counteract the loss?

As I read this novel, in the week leading up to the first anniversary of my father passing away, very suddenly, what Yui was looking for felt very close to home, and very real. The process through which we move through loss and bereavement is so unique, so individual and non linear that it can be frustrating and all consuming. And yet, there is hope, that one day you can speak a name, talk about things without feeling stabbed in the heart and catching your breath.

The entire notion of a phone which can take your words, which sends them on the wind to wherever your loved ones are, a mechanism through which you can speak, is a symbol of such love the likes of which I have never encountered. As the story begins, Yui is doing everything she can to protect this man made edifice to the lost against the weather conditions which took her loved ones away. As she tried to keep safe this symbol to loved ones, she travels back to how she first encountered the phone, how she made her way to it and what it came to mean .

She makes this amazing pilgrimage to a place where she believes she can say what she would, if she could, to her loved ones, only to have the words stolen from her by grief.

It takes the intervention of others to give voice to her love and ultimately, this is a novel of hope, human resilience and the way in which in the worst of all times, the best of people step forward to stand alongside you. A truly remarkable and unforgettable book which will be handed down and re-read over and over again, I recommend it unreservedly.

The Phonebox at the Edge of the World was something special ❤️⠀
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I wanted to start off by saying it’s crazy that no matter how much time has passed since you’ve lost a loved one you always want to pick up the phone to chat with them, to share with them the big things in life, or even if you’re just sat looking at an empty chair drinking your morning coffee wishing they were there for a chat. My granda would have been 98 today and not a day goes past that I don’t think I would love just one more chat ❤️⠀

This book really moved me in a way not many books have before, it’s a beautiful story, I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since finishing a few days ago. If I had to sum it up in one word - incredible.

This is such a beautifully written story that is both heartbreaking and heartwarming.
The story starts by reliving the events surrounding the terrible disaster of March 2011 in Japan where the main character lost her mother and daughter.
She then visits a phone box in a private garden which is open to the public where people "talk" to their departed loved ones.
Over the years that she visits this phone box she meets some really interesting people who share their stories.
The chapters in this book are quite short and have little snippets of information in between which I found very interesting.
Overall it's a story that I loved and will never forget.
Thank you to Netgalley uk and Manilla Press for an arc of this book.

One of the most most moving books I have ever read. It is powerful; heartbreaking but ultimately uplifting and beautiful,

This book is unlike anything I’ve read before. It hooked me in from the first few pages and you really got the sense that it was an almost true story. It is based on a true story and Bell Gardia does exist but it feels like a fiction book with real characters if that makes sense... It’s not drawn out like autobiography’s and some true stories but instead flows really naturally.

There’s something about books set in Japan that I find really calming, I’m not quite sure what it is but I always end up wanting to visit after reading.

Yui is such a lovely character and you really grow to love her, wanting the best for her but also to get some closure on everything that has happened in the past. When she first meets Takeshi it is clear that they have a connection, they are both seeking something that they believe the wind phone can provide. This isn’t necessarily a romantic connection but instead a more personal and deeper connection.

The wind phone itself conveys such a lovely idea and the fact that it’s helped so many people just warms your heart. I finished this book feeling rather emotional but with a happy feeling encompassing me. I would recommend this to anyone as it’s just a pure, lovely story

A nice story full of emotion and feeling. I found this book quite difficult to get into to begin with but after about a quarter of the way through it picked up for me.

I found that this one was a little to slow for me and despite there being some wonderful quotes it just didnt have enough of a storyline to keep me wanting to turn the page.

A beautifully written book with a an Interesting and Compelling concept. I will return to this book at a later date for a reread.

I got this on NetGalley but then got given a copy of the book. I loved the fact the book was written against the backdrop of society falling apart after a natural disaster and the attempts to rebuild with so much trauma still feeling so real. I loved the this disaster was part of effectively a book with magical realism and the romance element just drew so many things together.

2020 has been a year of reading fiction set in Japan and/or written by Japanese authors and this one is right up there in top reads.
The focus on the 2011 tsunami rather than the nuclear accident was a nice change and the coming to terms with loss and new beginnings was beautifully invoked. With relatively few words a whole world was described.

This novel is such a beautiful and moving read, I loved it. It follows Yui who lost her mum and her daughter in the tsunami. She discovers that there is a place where you can go and use a phone and talk to those you’ve lost and she decides to go there. While there she meets Takeshi and his young daughter who hasn’t spoken since her mum died. The novel follows both characters as they work through their pain and grief and as they try to find solace and a way to hold on to the past whilst also moving on. I found this book so hard to put down, it’s a novel that made me really tearful at times as I thought about that phone and how it must be to find some way of talking to those you’ve lost but ultimately I found this a really beautiful book and I very much enjoyed it.

This is such a heartfelt book, and the main relationship was lovely. It did feel in parts that it was more a few good quotes in the book than a great book overall though. Perhaps I just shouldn't be reading about grief at Christmas!

This was a quick read, filled with feeling and insight. I think the characters were lovely and likeable and they were complex in their nature, as real people are. I would approach with causation if you are in the process of grieving or trauma.

A beautiful book about love, loss and hope.

The relationship between the two main characters was fantastic but unfortunately it just wasn't enough for me. I wanted more - more of what, I don't know - just something.

I liked the short chapters but I didn't feel as though anything really happened.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bonnier Books UK for my copy. What a spellbinding and powerful book. A story of grief and ultimately hope for the future, this inspiring novel is beautifully written and whilst the theme is devastatingly sad, it makes us realise that good can always come out of tragedy. Just amazing.

Although I enjoyed the description of this book and was excited to read it, I found I was bored quite quickly and I really didn't connect with the characters.

I felt like the premise of this book gave it so much potential but unfortunately, it fell short for me.

When Yui loses her mother and young daughter in the 2011 tsunami, she has no idea how to carry on living with the weight of the sadness. While working on as a radio host, she learns about a man who has an old phone box in his garden where people travel to speak to their lost loved ones. Deciding to visit the phone box, Yui meets Takeshi, a widower whose young daughter will no longer speak. The two share their grief and eventually manage to rebuild their lives with the strength of the other holding them up.

Rather than getting caught up in a sweeping, heartbreaking narrative of a woman's experience with the Wind Phone as I hoped, I found myself bored and disconnected to the characters. It was much more character-driven than I expected and more about the rebuilding of life after losing lost ones rather than re-connecting with them via the Wind Phone which is the route I was hoping the book would take. It was very much a slow burn with a pace that just couldn't hold my attention. The in-between chapters were interesting at first but then felt like irrelevant fillers. I loved the concept of building a story around the Wind Phone and there were parts that touched me, such as hearing the stories from other visitors and their reasons for using the phone. It was brilliantly translated and the writing had a nice flow with some strong descriptions. Unfortunately, the plot just wasn't strong enough for me.