On a windy hill in Japan, in a garden overlooking the sea stands a disused phone box. For years, people have travelled to visit the phone box, to pick up the receiver and speak into the wind: to pass their messages to loved ones no longer with us.
When Yui loses her mother and daughter in the tsunami, she is plunged into despair and wonders how she will ever carry on. One day she hears of the phone box, and decides to make her own pilgrimage there, to speak once more to the people she loved the most. But when you have lost everything, the right words can be the hardest thing to find . . .
Then she meets Takeshi, a bereaved husband whose own daughter has stopped talking in the wake of their loss. What happens next will warm your heart, even when it feels as though it is breaking...
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IN THE VAST, STEEP GARDEN of Bell Gardia, great gusts of wind lashed the plants. PROLOGUE
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(Manilla Press, 25 June 2020, ebook, 418 pages, bought from @AmazonKindle)
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This is the author's debut. I've wanted to read this for ages since I heard so many rave reviews about it. I actually forgot I had a copy on my kindle and couldn't wait to read it. I loved the premise. I thought it was a unique read. It really was. I fell in love with the book, the characters and their stories. I loved the idea of using a disconnected phone to speak to someone who had died. This is an emotional concept and the book is very sad at times but there's a lot of love and beauty as well. I thought it was amazing.
