Last week, the last Monday of the month, should’ve been Book Review Monday, but of course Memorial Day was more important. So here is a review of the beautifully-written,

the phone booth at the edge of the world by Laura Imai Messina

On March 11, 2011, a magnitude (Mw) 9.1 earthquake struck off the northeast coast of Honshu on the Japan Trench. A tsunami that was generated by the earthquake arrived at the coast within 30 minutes, overtopping seawalls and disabling three nuclear reactors within days. The 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami event, often referred to as the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami, resulted in over 18,000 dead, including several thousand victims who were never recovered. (source: National Centers of Environmental Information-National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

From the front of the book: This story is inspired by a real place, in the northeast of Japan, in Iwate Prefecture.

One day, a man installed a telephone booth in the garden of his house at the foot of Kujira-yama, the Mountain of the Whale, just next to the city of Otsuchi, one of the places worst hit by the tsunami of March 11, 2011.

Inside there is an old black telephone, disconnected, that carries voices into the wind.

Thousands of people make the pilgrimage there every year.

the phone booth at the edge of the world follows Yui, a young woman who lost both her only child and her mother in the tsunami.

The book blurb ~ One day at work as the host of a call-in radio program, Yui hears a story about a man on Whale Mountain – one of the places worst hit by the tsunami – who has an old telephone booth with a disconnected phone in his garden. As news of the phone booth and its “Wind Phone” spreads, people start coming from miles around to speak to loved ones, finding comfort in sharing details of their daily lives with those they have lost. But when Yui, numb with grief, makes her own pilgrimage, she can’t bring herself to pick up the receiver. Then she meets Takeshi, a widower whose own daughter has stopped talking in the wake of her mother’s death …

Not everyone who visits the phone booth has lost loved ones in the tsunami, and that’s one of the elements of the story I enjoyed. Each person carries a different loss, carries it in their own way, and yet having that physical item to speak their grief is healing for all of them. The creator and custodian of the garden, Sasaki Itaru, (the author kept the actual name as a way of honoring him), is a benevolent guide to those who come to his door.

Messina’s writing reminded me of Japanese silk paintings in that the beauty lies in simple lines, but rich detail. While the story could have been depressing, it isn’t. There’s humor and much light throughout as the characters form friendships and unfold from their all-consuming sorrow.  Messina had me thinking of grief but also hope, and how differently I might connect to my deceased loved ones if I could pick up the Wind Phone and speak. Though not exactly planned, perhaps it’s no coincidence this month’s book comes the week after Memorial Day.

Here’s the link to read more about Bell Gardia and the Wind Phone.