Excerpt from Mina's Matchbox by Yoko Ogawa, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

No doubt, in order to help me relax, my uncle asked me questions about Okayama and told me about the middle school where I would be going. But I was so absorbed in studying his profile that I could manage no more than monosyllables in response. A mere touch of the gearshift or the button on the heater turned them into objects of desire. Parting with my mother in tears on the station platform seemed like a scene from the distant past.

After about half an hour, the car turned off the highway and headed along a river in the direction of the mountains. The Rokko Mountain Range loomed over us. We passed under the train tracks and crossed a bridge. Soon, the road started uphill and began to narrow. Trees closed in around us, birds could be heard among the leaves. Stone walls lined the road, tracing gentle turns. The roofs of houses peeked out between the trees. My uncle calmly maneuvered up a steep road barely wide enough for two cars to pass. Finally, he glided through a gate that had been left open, made a half-turn, and came to a stop under a porch.

"Here we are," he announced, opening my door and taking my hand.

"Is this your ... house?" I asked. "Is this really your house?"

Excerpted from Mina's Matchbox by Yoko Ogawa. Reprinted by permission of Pantheon Books, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright © 2024 by Yoko Ogawa.