What readers think of The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World, plus links to write your own review.

"The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World" by Laura Imai Messina tells a fictional story about a real place. In Japan, someone set up a "wind phone," an unhooked device designed to communicate with lost loved ones after the tsunami.

The main character, Yui, often brings herself to the garden, but it takes her a long while to gather up the courage to communicate with her departed daughter and mother. Finally, she meets Takeshi, a doctor who lost his wife and whose daughter has refused to speak since her mother's passing.

Grief, as we all know, is a journey and the author makes it a point to show how that path differs for everyone. Yui's journey is the stuff of the novel. Could she accept someone new in her life after having her peace ripped away?

After readings tons of books like this, I should have expected romance to become a factor. At first, you fight it as predictable but then realize that allowing someone else in is an inevitable part of the process.
In the shortest 400 pages I read, I felt like I was experiencing Yui and Takeshi's pain. The hardest thing for an author is to find hope in tragedy, and Messina leaves you feeling able to confront any hardship.

This is a beautiful meditation on life, love and loss. Read it, you won't be disappointed.

The cover and the title drew me in right away. However, I stayed for the story, writing, and inspiration. Beautifully written and evocatively plotted, this book uplifted and consoled me during this time of loss and worry. The writing is lyrical and pulls you into the story. I highly recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of "The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World" by Laura Imai Messina which is a fictional tale based on the real Wind phone in Japan.
" ... life decays, countless cracks form over time. But it was those very cracks, the fragility that determined a person's story: that made them want to keep going, to find what happens next" . To me this is the heart of the story. We meet Yui who loses both her mother and daughter in the 2001 tsunami that struck Japan. It explores the universal feeling of loss and the heart-rending grief that follows a loss. However , it also explores how different people handle that grief and how they choose to go forward , or not, in their continued existence. It is a story in the most part of great hope, resilience and love . We meet many people in the book who choose to visit the wind phone as a way to cope with their loss. People visit the beautiful gardens by the sea and enter a phone booth where they use a phone to send their words, their sorrow, their hopes in to the universe and to their loved ones. The writing is poetic almost to the point of meditative. The characters are memorable. The story is beautiful. It resonated with me on several levels but I do not think that you have to personally experience loss to sense its beauty.
I love that the writer states" that even when we are confronted by the subtractions, the things that life takes from us, we have to open ourselves up to the many additions it can offer too" This is so true yet so difficult at times to do in our lives. I love how even if you have a before and an after, there are things that may happen in both timeframes. Those experiences are different yet similar but you can enjoy equally the richness of each experience in their time. I believe this tender novel/love story can be enjoyed by many and would make a wonderful addition to the "Book Club Shelf. There are many situations and even characters in the book that would instigate a discussion.
I enjoyed learning more about Japan and Japanese culture. I appreciated the appendix at the back of book to identify and explain the Japanese words and holidays in the book. I also appreciated that the author included in the afterword, a website for those readers who were interested in the real BelGardia and who wished to learn more about it.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of "The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World" by Laura Imai Messina which is a fictional tale based on the real Wind phone in Japan.
" ... life decays, countless cracks form over time. But it was those very cracks, the fragility that determined a person's story: that made them want to keep going, to find what happens next" . To me this is the heart of the story. We meet Yui who loses both her mother and daughter in the 2001 tsunami that struck Japan. It explores the universal feeling of loss and the heart-rending grief that follows a loss. However , it also explores how different people handle that grief and how they choose to go forward , or not, in their continued existence. It is a story in the most part of great hope, resilience and love . We meet many people in the book who choose to visit the wind phone as a way to cope with their loss. People visit the beautiful gardens by the sea and enter a phone booth where they use a phone to send their words, their sorrow, their hopes in to the universe and to their loved ones. The writing is poetic almost to the point of meditative. The characters are memorable. The story is beautiful. It resonated with me on several levels but I do not think that you have to personally experience loss to sense its beauty.
I love that the writer state s"that even when we are confronted by the subtractions, the things that life takes from us, we have to open ourselves up to the many additions it can offer too". This is so true yet so difficult at times to do in our lives. I love how even if you have a before and an after, there are things that may happen in both time-frames. Those experiences are different yet similar but you can enjoy equally the richness of each experience in their time. I believe this tender novel/love story can be enjoyed by many and would make a wonderful addition to the "Book Club Shelf". There are many situations and even characters in the book that would instigate a discussion.
I enjoyed learning more about Japan and Japanese culture. I appreciated the appendix at the back of book to identify and explain the Japanese words and holidays in the book. I also appreciated that the author included in the afterword, a website for those readers who were interested in the real BelGardia and who wished to learn more about it.

This book presents grief and healing and love in a wonderfully delicious words and imagery. For anyone who has known grief, the wind phone shows a way out of darkness. The storytelling takes the reader on a quiet yet powerful journey. I highly recommend that you take TBE ride.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. It had a lovely ethereal flow. I loved all the characters and the development of each one in their grief and the impact of Bell Gardia had in their healing. A wonderful book!

This is the best novel I've read in a long time. I felt the spiritual message of the story and thought of it more spiritual versus fantasy. From the beginning I was touched by Laura Imai Messina's poetic manner of writing. She developed her characters in a delightful and loving way. I cared about the many characters and wanted the best for them including Tora the cat and,of course, the phone booth.

Yui's story is developed in many dimensions; physically, emotionally and spiritually. This tension propels the story.

I found this a very hopeful novel. In this time of so much tension Yui's story is needed. We need to go to the phone booth and hear the wind.

I can't think of another novel where place is so important to the story. I agree with the author that readers need to go to the bell-gardia website and see the healing place that Sasaki Itaru and his wife have created.