The Phone Box at the Edge of the World

A story of grief and how to overcome it, based on a real place in Japan. The phone box of the title is a phone disconnected from the phone lines in a windswept garden. People come here it to talk to the ones they have lost, trying to gain closure from being able to say all the things they wished they could say to them.

The novel here follows the story of a women who lost her daughter and mother to the recent Japanese tsunami and man she meets who has lost his wife, whilst travelling to use this phone. The main focus of the story is the unfolding relationship between these two people, both of whom have suffered extreme grief. Learning how to love again after such loss is a struggle. Laura Imai Messina deals with these heavy themes with a deft touch. There is a gentle sense of beauty and love pervading what is otherwise a very grief laden story.