Written in Italian and published as Quel che affidiamo al vento, the English translation was done by Lucy Rand. Rand’s translation is fluent and seamless; she captures the lyricism and meditative quality of the writing with care, a feat made more impressive given that there’s also a distinct Japanese sensibility (the author has been living in Japan for the past 15 years). E i due si innamorano. E Taseki glielo avrebbe spiegato a Yui “Che è un vero miracolo l’amore. Anche il secondo, anche quello che arriva per sbaglio.” This isn't a love story as such, it's a story about what love is – about how we express it, the nature of it, and in particular the kinds of love beyond the romantic kind. Love for a child, for a parent, for a friend. Love for strangers. For life. It is, obviously, also a story about grief, about mourning, but ultimately every love story is about grief. The problem with happy ever after is that 'ever after' has a tendency to be quite short. It is the nature of life that we will lose the ones we love – or that they will lose us – and the beauty of life lies at least in part with how we deal with that loss. myself becoming the person I was before, my wife listening to me from the kitchen, busy preparing breakfast or dinner, me grumbling that the coffee burned my tongue.

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.When I speak of my indifference, what I mean is that I think it’s a powerful story with many interesting explorations of grief, the meaning of family, and belonging, but I don’t think it was quite grounded enough for me. The beautiful writing coupled with the split narrative (which switched between Yui’s story and various other digressions such as lists relating to her daughter or quotes from the bible) meant that the whole thing was a bit messy for me, and didn’t include enough solid plot to keep me interested. Die Telefonzelle am Ende der Welt“, geschrieben von Laura Imai Messina ist eine Geschichte, die mich vollends berührt hat. Die Autorin greift hier eine wirklich tiefe Thematik, die der Trauer, des Neuanfangs, des Loslassens und einfach des Lebens, mit all seinem Licht und Schatten auf und verknüpft das ganze eben mit wahren Ereignissen und eben der Telefonzelle, am Ende der Welt... die es wirklich gibt und ein ganz besonderer Ort für viele Menschen ist, die ihren Toten geliebten Menschen gedenken, die noch nicht loslassen können und diese Telefonzelle als wichtigen Ort nutzen, um Abschied zu nehmen. Aber eben auch um neue Kraft zu schöpfen. Und so tauchte ich in diese Geschichte ein, tief bewegt, tief berührt und mit unzähligen Tränen in den Augen und doch dem Gefühl der Zuversicht, der Geborgenheit und der Hoffnung und Liebe im Herzen. The Phone Box at the Edge of the World is powerful and moving, thoughtful and evocative. Messina writes with both clarity and restraint, with the ability to reveal much in a single, compressed paragraph. In an early description of Yui, Messina writes: Depending on what you were told at the information center, you belonged to one of two groups: those who knew and those who were waiting. Sometimes people would go on to another shelter, where they'd find the people they had been waiting for waiting for them. Mesmerising . . . beautiful . . . a joy to read' - Joanna Glen, Costa shortlisted author of The Other Half of Augusta Hope

A moving and uplifting anatomisation of grief and the small miraculous moments that persuade people to start looking forward again' - Sunday Times In the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami that followed a 9.0 earthquake, 20,000 lives were lost, and an untold number of families were devastated by the loss, a loss that continues to haunt these families. Yui, a young woman, is one who lost loved ones, family. Her daughter and her mother, both. Her sorrow is palpable, but is shared by the many people who call in to share their stories at the radio station where she works. Cosa vi ha reso più semplice alzarvi la mattina e andare a letto la sera dopo un grande lutto? Cosa vi permette di stare bene quando vi sentite afflitti?» marzo 2011: al largo della costa della regione di Tōhoku, nel Giappone settentrionale, ci fu Il sisma, con epicentro in mare e con successivo tsunami, più potente mai misurato in Giappone e il quarto a livello mondiale. In The Phone Box at the Edge of the World, Yui, a woman who has lost her mother and daughter in the tsunami and wonders how she will carry on.

Christmas Gifts

Bonnier Books UK has announced a novel inspired by the true story of Japan's2011 tsunami for its new literary imprint, Manilla Press.