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3.5 

Mina's Matchbox

By Yoko Ogawa & Stephen B. Snyder
Mina's Matchbox by Yoko Ogawa & Stephen B. Snyder digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE • A TIME BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • From the award-winning, psychologically astute author of The Memory Police, a hypnotic, introspective novel about an affluent Japanese family navigating buried secrets, and their young house guest who uncovers them.

“A story of first enchantments and last gasps…Effervescent." —New York Times Book Review

“Yoko Ogawa is a quiet wizard, casting her words like a spell, conjuring a world of curiosity and enchantment, secrets and loss. I read Mina’s Matchbox like a besotted child, enraptured, never wanting it to end.” —Ruth Ozeki, author of The Book of Form and Emptiness


In the spring of 1972, twelve-year-old Tomoko leaves her mother behind in Tokyo and boards a train alone for Ashiya, a coastal town in Japan, to stay with her aunt’s family. Tomoko’s aunt is an enigma and an outlier in her working-class family, and her magnificent home—and handsome foreign husband, the president of a soft drink company—are symbols of that status. The seventeen rooms are filled with German-made furnishings; there are sprawling gardens and even an old zoo where the family’s pygmy hippopotamus resides. The family is just as beguiling as their mansion—Tomoko’s dignified and devoted aunt, her German great-aunt, and her dashing, charming uncle, who confidently sits as the family’s patriarch. At the center of the family is Tomoko’s cousin Mina, a precocious, asthmatic girl of thirteen who draws Tomoko into an intoxicating world full of secret crushes and elaborate storytelling.

In this elegant jewel box of a book, Yoko Ogawa invites us to witness a powerful and formative interlude in Tomoko’s life. Behind the family's sophistication are complications that Tomoko struggles to understand—her uncle’s mysterious absences, her great-aunt’s experience of the Second World War, her aunt’s misery. Rich with the magic and mystery of youthful experience, 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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189 Reviews

3.5
Smiling Face with Heart-Eyes“I’m so curious why this one took nearly twenty years to be translated into English when Ogawa is already highly regarded and generally in translation. Regardless this is the type of novel where your heart breaks on the last page - not because of the plot but because your time with these characters has come to a close. This feels like such a classical novel in its form and storytelling. Spend your days with Tomoko as she is accepted into the home and world of her extended family. There are moments that bring to mind Wes Anderson - minus the existential anguish mind you. I know it’s only January - but the bar has been set.”
Smiling Face with Heart-Eyes“Mina's Matchbox was the January read for Club Bookwormy and even though my copy of the book arrived ridiculously late, I managed to finish in a day and a few hours. Tomoko's life with her aunt's family and her relationship with her cousin Mina is so special. As an only child also close with a particular cousin I could relate a lot with Tomoko and Mina's relationship. I am especially fond of Grandmother Rosa. Her room full of pretty things from her homeland feels like a cave full of treasures, a dream come true for any young girl. Also a favourite character of mine from the book is Tomoko's aunt. A warm presence in her life in the absence of her mother. Not a woman of many words but certainly dependable. Reminded me a lot of my own aunt sans the drinking and smoking. Not to forget Pochiko! I will always have a big pond for her in the bottom of my heart.”
“very sweet story, written well.”
Loudly Crying Face“undoubtably one of the most beautiful novels i have ever read. captures your heart painfully and surprises you at every turn. soulfully creative and wonderful with its amazing set of characters and beautiful descriptions of nature. easiest five star i’ve ever given. can’t even speak after finishing it! clicking the "i'm finished!" button is very real right now because i think this book finished me.”

About Yoko Ogawa

YOKO OGAWA has won every major Japanese literary award. Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, A Public Space, and Zoetrope: All-Story. Her works include The Memory Police, The Diving Pool, a collection of three novellas; The Housekeeper and the Professor; Hotel Iris; and Revenge. She lives in Ashiya, Japan.

Stephen B. Snyder

Other books by Stephen B. Snyder

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