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Publisher Description
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE • 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.
“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.
15 Reviews
3.5
Golightly
Created 3 days agoShare
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“A beautifully written, poetic coming-of-age story that feels almost like a fairy tale. Set in the hills of Ashiya, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, it evokes memories of the dreamy atmosphere of Kobe's Ijinkan mansions.
Told from the perspective of 12-year-old Tomoko, the story begins with her reminiscing about a fairy tale-like crib gifted by her uncle. The plot follows Tomoko's one-year stay with her aunt’s family in Ashiya while her mother attends a course in Tokyo. The entire mansion feels surreal, with everyone/ everything seemingly existing to protect Tomoko’s fragile cousin, Mina, who lives in a confined world due to her asthma. Mina’s sheltered life mirrors the innocence of childhood, slowly unraveling as the symbols of her protection—like match flames—extinguish one by one.
As Tomoko and Mina grow, they learn that while childhood fades, memories endure. Mina’s final act of letting go of something precious and giving it to Tomoko beautifully symbolizes the transition from innocence to reality.
This is a stunning, heartfelt story about the loss of childhood and the journey into real life. I’d love to read it again.”Characters change and growLikable charactersBeautifully writtenDescriptive writingOriginal writingBeautiful settingImmersive setting
c
Created 12 days agoShare
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“I am simply like a moth to a flame with asian literary fiction”
locallibrarylover
Created 15 days agoShare
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“unfortunately i was bored”
BookswithVivian
Created 17 days agoShare
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Characters change and growMulti-layered charactersBeautifully writtenEasy to readImmersive settingComing of age
Dani
Created 17 days agoShare
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Characters change and growLikable charactersMulti-layered charactersBeautifully writtenDescriptive writingEasy to readBeautiful settingImmersive settingComing of ageFeel good
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.
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