The Phone Box At The Edge Of The World is a novel by Laura Imai Messina, published in 2020.
I’d heard great things about this book yet knew very little about the story. Laura Imai Messina is an Italian who has been living in Japan for the last 15 years and the book was originally written in Italian. The version I read was translated into English by Lucy Rand.
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Plot
After losing both her mother and her young daughter in the 2011 tsunami in Japan, Yui is consumed with grief. During a conversation on her radio show, she learns about a disconnected phone located in a garden overlooking the sea where the bereaved go to speak to their lost loved ones. Intrigued, Yui decides to visit in the hope of overcoming her own grief, and yet finds she can’t bring herself to pick up the phone. During her regular visits, she sees how important this phone box is for people, and meets Takeshi, a young widow whose daughter has stopped talking since her mother died.
The Phone Box At The Edge Of The World is a moving story about grief, compassion, human connection and love.
The Phone Box At The Edge Of The World Book Review
Laura Imai Messina has created a quiet, emotional story that’s based on real-life events. This is not a book you rush through, it’s a book to savour. The plot is subtle and delicate and the slow pace allows the reader to embrace the beautiful, often poetic, prose.
I loved that it was based on real experiences and that the phone box in Bell Gardia is a real place. The family who care for the phone and its visitors are the same family who appear in the book and the Wind Phone is visited by many all over the world.
While this is a story about grief, it isn’t a depressing read. Yui’s sorrow, along with the sorrow of all the visitors to the phone, is palpable yet also intertwined with hope and forgiveness. Yui has faced unimaginable tragedy and yet her compassion and resilience remain.
I enjoyed the details added at the end of each chapter to give extra depth to the topic. Some of the addendums were lighthearted whereas others were really sombre and sad.
The Phone Box At The Edge Of The World is a sensitive and compassionate look at grief that’s full of quiet moments of wisdom. It really makes you appreciate what you have.
What to read next
If you enjoyed The Phone Box at the Edge of the World you may also like Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi and After the End by Clare Mackintosh.