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Mina's Matchbox
Paperback

Mina’s Matchbox

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A story of friendship and family secrets in 1970s Japan, from the prizewinning author of The Memory Police.

After the death of her father, twelve-year-old Tomoko is sent to live for a year with her uncle in the coastal town of Ashiya. It is a year which will change her life.

The 1970s are bringing changes to Japan and her uncle's magnificent colonial mansion opens up a new and unfamiliar world for Tomoko; its sprawling gardens are even home to a pygmy hippo the family keeps as a pet. Tomoko finds her relatives equally exotic and beguiling and her growing friendship with her cousin Mina draws her into an intoxicating world full of secret crushes and elaborate storytelling.

As the two girls share confidences their eyes are opened to the complications of the adult world. Tomoko's understanding of her uncle's mysterious absences, her grandmother's wartime experiences and her aunt's unhappiness will all come into clearer focus as she and Mina build an enduring bond. Rich with the magic and mystery of youth, Mina's Matchbox is an evocative snapshot of a moment frozen in time, and a striking depiction of a family on the edge of collapse.

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MORE INFO
Format
Paperback
Publisher
Vintage Publishing
Country
United Kingdom
Date
13 August 2024
Pages
288
ISBN
9781787302778

A story of friendship and family secrets in 1970s Japan, from the prizewinning author of The Memory Police.

After the death of her father, twelve-year-old Tomoko is sent to live for a year with her uncle in the coastal town of Ashiya. It is a year which will change her life.

The 1970s are bringing changes to Japan and her uncle's magnificent colonial mansion opens up a new and unfamiliar world for Tomoko; its sprawling gardens are even home to a pygmy hippo the family keeps as a pet. Tomoko finds her relatives equally exotic and beguiling and her growing friendship with her cousin Mina draws her into an intoxicating world full of secret crushes and elaborate storytelling.

As the two girls share confidences their eyes are opened to the complications of the adult world. Tomoko's understanding of her uncle's mysterious absences, her grandmother's wartime experiences and her aunt's unhappiness will all come into clearer focus as she and Mina build an enduring bond. Rich with the magic and mystery of youth, Mina's Matchbox is an evocative snapshot of a moment frozen in time, and a striking depiction of a family on the edge of collapse.

Read More
Format
Paperback
Publisher
Vintage Publishing
Country
United Kingdom
Date
13 August 2024
Pages
288
ISBN
9781787302778
 
Book Review

Mina’s Matchbox
by Yoko Ogawa, Stephen Snyder (trans.)

by Tracy Hwang, Jul 2024

After the death of her father, 12-year-old Tomoko is sent to live with her aunt’s family in their colonial-style house in Ashiya, a Japanese town nestled between the mountains and the sea. She spends a year there, befriending Mina, her cousin, and the family pet, a pygmy hippopotamus named Pochiko. The two girls spend their days collecting matchboxes, borrowing the novels of Yasunari Kawabata from the library, and watching the Japanese 1972 Olympics volleyball team on TV. In the background, her uncle frequently disappears from the house, her aunt retreats to a room to drink alone, and her grandmother reminisces about a long-lost twin. What follows is a whimsical tale of girlhood, coming-of-age and nostalgia. It’s peppered throughout with a subtle darkness that feels like an acknowledgement of the ever-present fear in all our childhoods: that this period of innocence must one day come to an end and the life to come will never be as carefree or as pure.

As in Yōko Ogawa’s previous works, there is a continuation of her preoccupation with memory and connection, while her prose flits between sweet nostalgia and dark foreboding. The effect is delicious; never did it feel like the story tipped into an overly saccharine tale of simple bildungsroman. Instead, Ogawa has produced a dynamic, Ghibli-esque tale that charms with its slightly naïve, slightly desperate, and slightly unreliable narrator, Tomoko. There’s a little bit of Lonely Castle in the Mirror here, and a little bit of The Book of Goose too, however Ogawa’s voice is entirely her own and entirely bewitching. I didn’t want it to end, and I will miss the time I spent with these characters.

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