Mar 11, 2022

The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World by Laura Imai Messina: Book Beginning

 

The phone booth at the edge of the world by Laura Imai Messina
Published March 9, 2021, Harry N. Abrams

Book description: "grief, mourning, and the joy of survival, inspired by a real phone booth in Japan with its disconnected “wind” phone, a place of pilgrimage and solace since the 2011 tsunami."

Yui makes a pilgrimage to the phone booth in the garden of Bel Gardia, at the foot of the Mountain of the Whale. Here people find solace in talking on the disconnected phone to the ones they lost in the tsunami of March 11, 2011, their voices carried away by the wind. 

Book beginning:

Prologue

In the vast, steep garden of Bel Gardia, great gusts of wind lashed the plants.

The woman instinctively raised an elbow to her face, rounding her back. Then, almost immediately, she straightened up again. 

She had arrived before dawn, and watched as the sun came up but the sun remained hidden....


Page 56:

"She's stopped talking, yes, but I'm optimistic, and so is the pediatrician."

 

Would you read on?

The Friday 56. Find any sentence that grabs you on page 56 of your book. Post it, and add your URL to Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginnings at Rose City Reader.

34 comments:

  1. I need to read this one, thanks for reminding me with your post!
    Mine is in French this time. With free copies available, and credits to earn an egift card: https://francebooktours.com/2022/02/22/le-promeneur-sur-le-cap-first-chapter-first-paragraph-book-beginnings/

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  2. Love the title and cover. Happy reading. My post: https://cindysbookcorner.blogspot.com/2022/03/first-line-friday-42-knox.html

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    1. Very subtle cover. It caught my eye right off.

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  3. I haven't heard of this one but it sounds really interesting.

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    1. I found out about this book on a blogger's post, Yvonne and the description caught my attention.

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  4. Is this a novel or nonfiction? It sounds really lovely. I am adding it to my TBR. My Friday quotes

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    1. A novel about a real life phone booth with a black disconnected phone where the ones who lost people in the tsunami can come to talk to their deceased loved ones. Symbolic but haunting

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  5. Love those snippets and that cover!! Happy weekend!

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    1. The cover of cherry blossoms remind me of spring and hope!

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  6. This book intrigues me...I would definitely keep reading. :-)

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  7. This sounds like a fascinating read. Thanks for the intro!

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  8. Such a charming cover and sounds like a wonderful read! Thanks for sharing it!

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    1. Glad you like it! Thanks for the comment.

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  9. The thought of nuclear reactors increases my apprehension about what horror the Russians are planning for Chernobyl. Why did they take it? Will they make more ghosts like in this book?

    best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com

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  10. Sounds intriguing. Do we know the woman's name fairly soon? Happy reading this weekend!

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    1. Her name is Yui, and she lost her daughter and mother, thus the pilgrimage to the phone booth.

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  11. This sounds so different! I first thought it would be melancholy, but maybe hopeful also? Beautiful cover.

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    1. I'm in the middle of reading it and I think hopeful as people find comfort in talking to their loved ones in the wind phone booth.

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  12. It sounds both heartbreaking and inspirational.

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  13. This sounds like such a fascinating and powerful book. Love the cover too. Thanks for sharing! Hope you have a great weekend! :)

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  14. Such a beautiful cover! Hope you enjoy the story.

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  15. The flowers on the cover are understated to fit the topic. I think.

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  16. Oh I do like the sound of this; the cover is very different as well.

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    1. An unusual idea to deal with grief and loss. I am amazed that this phone booth does exist in northern Japan in a town close to where the tsunami hit.

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