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Mina's Matchbox : A Novel by Yoko Ogawa (2024, Hardcover)
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Mina's Matchbox : A Novel by Yoko Ogawa (2024, Hardcover)
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About this product
Product Identifiers
PublisherKnopf Doubleday Publishing Group
ISBN-100593316088
ISBN-139780593316085
eBay Product ID (ePID)25064272654
Product Key Features
Book TitleMina's Matchbox : a Novel
Number of Pages288 Pages
LanguageEnglish
Publication Year2024
TopicFamily Life, Coming of Age, Linguistics / General
GenreLanguage Arts & Disciplines, Fiction
AuthorYoko Ogawa
FormatHardcover
Dimensions
Item Height1.1 in
Item Weight14.6 Oz
Item Length8.5 in
Item Width5.8 in
Additional Product Features
Intended AudienceTrade
LCCN2023-054198
ReviewsPraise for Mina's Matchbox A Most Anticipated Book of the Summer from The Atlantic, TIME, Boston Globe, Bustle, and Publishers Weekly "The reader is immersed in [Tomoko's] ardent love for her fragile cousin, and comes to appreciate how history seeps into every life, even the most sheltered ones." -- The Atlantic "A transfixing coming of age tale." --TIME "Capturing a Japanese girl's adolescence in the early 1970s, this hypnotic book shimmers with eccentric enigmas." -- Boston Globe "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 "It's the kind of transformative trip that makes for a powerful read at any time of year, but feels especially appropriate when you're craving a (literary) summer sojourn." -- Bustle "Focusing on characters of an age when the world seems full of wonder and possibility, this engaging bildungsroman explores the friendship and mutual curiosity between two extraordinary young people... Facing complicated themes with deceptively simple language, she pulls off a neat trick here, painting everything in miniature and often in hindsight without losing the immediacy of Tomoko's experiences. A charming yet guileless exploration of childhood's ephemeral pleasures and reflexive poignancy." -- Kirkus , starred review "Captivating...Ogawa pulls off the rare feat of making childhood memories both credible and provocative. Readers will be hypnotized." -- Publishers Weekly , starred review, Praise for Mina''s Matchbox A Most Anticipated Book of the Summer from People, The Atlantic, TIME, Boston Globe, Bustle, and Publishers Weekly "A story of first enchantments and last gasps...Effervescent...''We look at the world once, in childhood,'' Louise Glück wrote in her 1996 poem ''Nostos.'' ''The rest is memory.'' Ogawa captures the enduring spark of that imprinting and its oracular glow. We revisit those moments when the match was first struck, when the future still felt like ours to ignite." -- New York Times Book Review "Ogawa evokes the secret crushes and crushing secrets of girlhood with charm and elegance." --People "A bittersweet coming-of-age tale...Dreamy and whimsical, Mina''s Matchbox traffics in the themes at which Ogawa always excels: memory, identity, and nostalgia." -- Esquire "The reader is immersed in [Tomoko''s] ardent love for her fragile cousin, and comes to appreciate how history seeps into every life, even the most sheltered ones." -- The Atlantic "A transfixing coming of age tale." --TIME "Capturing a Japanese girl''s adolescence in the early 1970s, this hypnotic book shimmers with eccentric enigmas." -- Boston Globe "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 "It''s the kind of transformative trip that makes for a powerful read at any time of year, but feels especially appropriate when you''re craving a (literary) summer sojourn." -- Bustle "An incredible novel that affirms Ogawa''s position as the great writer of fantastical literature today...Brighter in tone and detail...but somehow the tension and terror of living is always at the periphery. Ogawa has produced a world near and tender, but tough and bittersweet, like recognizing a lost loved one in the story told by someone new." -- The Millions "Powerful in its nuanced details, Mina''s Matchbox is an immersive and poignant coming-of-age story...Curious and filled with wonder...Ogawa''s masterful descriptions, too, add depth and suggest simmering secrets that wait to boil over...An elegant and stirring work that captures the dreams of youth, and the lingering sweetness that can remain even after those dreams have faded." -- Bookpage, starred review "Focusing on characters of an age when the world seems full of wonder and possibility, this engaging bildungsroman explores the friendship and mutual curiosity between two extraordinary young people... Facing complicated themes with deceptively simple language, she pulls off a neat trick here, painting everything in miniature and often in hindsight without losing the immediacy of Tomoko''s experiences. A charming yet guileless exploration of childhood''s ephemeral pleasures and reflexive poignancy." -- Kirkus , starred review "Captivating...Ogawa pulls off the rare feat of making childhood memories both credible and provocative. Readers will be hypnotized." -- Publishers Weekly , starred review "In language as clean and delicate as a whisper, the cousins'' year of shared adventures frays as tragedies chip away at the public façade of the family''s private realities...Ogawa writes with exquisite artistry about the complications of a close-knit household whose members are quietly protective of its wounding secrets, as seen through the eyes of a young girl; the novel is beautifully translated by Snyder." -- Library Journal , starred review "[12-year-old] Tomoko proves to be a prodigiously astute observer, discovering truths behind closed doors...Remarkable is the timing of Snyder''s impressively seamless translation. Ogawa already brilliantly, deftly broadens her not-quite-quotidian family saga with pivotal world events." -- Booklist , starred review, Praise for Mina's Matchbox A Most Anticipated Book of the Summer from The Atlantic, TIME, Boston Globe, and Publishers Weekly "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 "The reader is immersed in [Tomoko's] ardent love for her fragile cousin, and comes to appreciate how history seeps into every life, even the most sheltered ones." -- The Atlantic "A transfixing coming of age tale." --TIME "Capturing a Japanese girl's adolescence in the early 1970s, this hypnotic book shimmers with eccentric enigmas." -- Boston Globe "Focusing on characters of an age when the world seems full of wonder and possibility, this engaging bildungsroman explores the friendship and mutual curiosity between two extraordinary young people... Facing complicated themes with deceptively simple language, she pulls off a neat trick here, painting everything in miniature and often in hindsight without losing the immediacy of Tomoko's experiences. A charming yet guileless exploration of childhood's ephemeral pleasures and reflexive poignancy." -- Kirkus , starred review Praise for Yoko Ogawa's Previous Work "A masterpiece...A rare work of patient and courageous vision." -- The Guardian on The Memory Police "Ogawa's fable echoes the themes of George Orwell's 1984 , Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 , and Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude , but it has a voice and power all its own." -- Time on The Memory Police "An intimate, suspenseful drama of courage and endurance." -- The Wall Street Journal on The Memory Police "Gorgeous, cinematic...This novel has all the charm and restraint of any by Ishiguro or Kenzaburo oe, and the whimsy of Murakami." -- Los Angeles Times on The Housekeeper and the Professor "Deceptively elegant...This is one of those books written in such lucid, unpretentious language that reading it is like looking into a deep pool of clear water. Dive into Yoko Ogawa's world...and you find yourself tugged by forces more felt than seen." -- The New York Times Book Review on The Housekeeper and the Professor "Ogawa's fiction reflects like a fun-house mirror...[Like] Haruki Murakami, Ogawa writes stories that float free of any specific culture, anchoring themselves instead in the landscape of the mind." -- Washington Post on The Diving Pool "The stories seem to penetrate right to the heart of the world...[Ogawa's] spare technique is very skilled. Every word is put to work." -- Hilary Mantel on The Diving Pool "Ogawa has long been recognized as one of Japan's best writers of the postwar generation." -- BookForum on The Diving Pool, Praise for Mina's Matchbox A Most Anticipated Book of the Summer from The Atlantic, TIME, and Publishers Weekly "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 "The reader is immersed in [Tomoko's] ardent love for her fragile cousin, and comes to appreciate how history seeps into every life, even the most sheltered ones." -- The Atlantic "A transfixing coming of age tale." --TIME "Focusing on characters of an age when the world seems full of wonder and possibility, this engaging bildungsroman explores the friendship and mutual curiosity between two extraordinary young people... Facing complicated themes with deceptively simple language, she pulls off a neat trick here, painting everything in miniature and often in hindsight without losing the immediacy of Tomoko's experiences. A charming yet guileless exploration of childhood's ephemeral pleasures and reflexive poignancy." -- Kirkus , starred review Praise for Yoko Ogawa's Previous Work "A masterpiece...A rare work of patient and courageous vision." -- The Guardian on The Memory Police "Ogawa's fable echoes the themes of George Orwell's 1984 , Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 , and Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude , but it has a voice and power all its own." -- Time on The Memory Police "An intimate, suspenseful drama of courage and endurance." -- The Wall Street Journal on The Memory Police "Gorgeous, cinematic...This novel has all the charm and restraint of any by Ishiguro or Kenzaburo oe, and the whimsy of Murakami." -- Los Angeles Times on The Housekeeper and the Professor "Deceptively elegant...This is one of those books written in such lucid, unpretentious language that reading it is like looking into a deep pool of clear water. Dive into Yoko Ogawa's world...and you find yourself tugged by forces more felt than seen." -- The New York Times Book Review on The Housekeeper and the Professor "Ogawa's fiction reflects like a fun-house mirror...[Like] Haruki Murakami, Ogawa writes stories that float free of any specific culture, anchoring themselves instead in the landscape of the mind." -- Washington Post on The Diving Pool "The stories seem to penetrate right to the heart of the world...[Ogawa's] spare technique is very skilled. Every word is put to work." -- Hilary Mantel on The Diving Pool "Ogawa has long been recognized as one of Japan's best writers of the postwar generation." -- BookForum on The Diving Pool, Praise for Mina's Matchbox A Most Anticipated Book of the Summer from The Atlantic, TIME, and Publishers Weekly "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 "The reader is immersed in [Tomoko's] ardent love for her fragile cousin, and comes to appreciate how history seeps into every life, even the most sheltered ones." -- The Atlantic "A transfixing coming of age tale." -- TIME Praise for Yoko Ogawa's Previous Work "A masterpiece...A rare work of patient and courageous vision." -- The Guardian on The Memory Police "Ogawa's fable echoes the themes of George Orwell's 1984 , Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 , and Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude , but it has a voice and power all its own." -- Time on The Memory Police "An intimate, suspenseful drama of courage and endurance." -- The Wall Street Journal on The Memory Police "Gorgeous, cinematic...This novel has all the charm and restraint of any by Ishiguro or Kenzaburo oe, and the whimsy of Murakami." -- Los Angeles Times on The Housekeeper and the Professor "Deceptively elegant...This is one of those books written in such lucid, unpretentious language that reading it is like looking into a deep pool of clear water. Dive into Yoko Ogawa's world...and you find yourself tugged by forces more felt than seen." -- The New York Times Book Review on The Housekeeper and the Professor "Ogawa's fiction reflects like a fun-house mirror...[Like] Haruki Murakami, Ogawa writes stories that float free of any specific culture, anchoring themselves instead in the landscape of the mind." -- Washington Post on The Diving Pool "The stories seem to penetrate right to the heart of the world...[Ogawa's] spare technique is very skilled. Every word is put to work." -- Hilary Mantel on The Diving Pool "Ogawa has long been recognized as one of Japan's best writers of the postwar generation." -- BookForum on The Diving Pool, Praise for Mina's Matchbox A Most Anticipated Book of the Summer from Publishers Weekly Praise for Yoko Ogawa's Previous Work "A masterpiece...A rare work of patient and courageous vision." -- The Guardian on The Memory Police "Ogawa's fable echoes the themes of George Orwell's 1984 , Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 , and Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude , but it has a voice and power all its own." -- Time on The Memory Police "An intimate, suspenseful drama of courage and endurance." -- The Wall Street Journal on The Memory Police "Gorgeous, cinematic...This novel has all the charm and restraint of any by Ishiguro or Kenzaburo oe, and the whimsy of Murakami." -- Los Angeles Times on The Housekeeper and the Professor "Deceptively elegant...This is one of those books written in such lucid, unpretentious language that reading it is like looking into a deep pool of clear water. Dive into Yoko Ogawa's world...and you find yourself tugged by forces more felt than seen." -- The New York Times Book Review on The Housekeeper and the Professor "Ogawa's fiction reflects like a fun-house mirror...[Like] Haruki Murakami, Ogawa writes stories that float free of any specific culture, anchoring themselves instead in the landscape of the mind." -- Washington Post on The Diving Pool "The stories seem to penetrate right to the heart of the world...[Ogawa's] spare technique is very skilled. Every word is put to work." -- Hilary Mantel on The Diving Pool "Ogawa has long been recognized as one of Japan's best writers of the postwar generation." -- BookForum on The Diving Pool, Praise for Mina's Matchbox A Most Anticipated Book of the Summer from The Atlantic, TIME, Boston Globe, Bustle, and Publishers Weekly "The reader is immersed in [Tomoko's] ardent love for her fragile cousin, and comes to appreciate how history seeps into every life, even the most sheltered ones." -- The Atlantic "A transfixing coming of age tale." --TIME "Capturing a Japanese girl's adolescence in the early 1970s, this hypnotic book shimmers with eccentric enigmas." -- Boston Globe "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 "It's the kind of transformative trip that makes for a powerful read at any time of year, but feels especially appropriate when you're craving a (literary) summer sojourn." -- Bustle "Focusing on characters of an age when the world seems full of wonder and possibility, this engaging bildungsroman explores the friendship and mutual curiosity between two extraordinary young people... Facing complicated themes with deceptively simple language, she pulls off a neat trick here, painting everything in miniature and often in hindsight without losing the immediacy of Tomoko's experiences. A charming yet guileless exploration of childhood's ephemeral pleasures and reflexive poignancy." -- Kirkus , starred review, Praise for Mina's Matchbox A Most Anticipated Book of the Summer from The Atlantic, TIME, Boston Globe, Bustle, and Publishers Weekly "A story of first enchantments and last gasps...Effervescent...'We look at the world once, in childhood,' Louise Glück wrote in her 1996 poem 'Nostos.' 'The rest is memory.' Ogawa captures the enduring spark of that imprinting and its oracular glow. We revisit those moments when the match was first struck, when the future still felt like ours to ignite." -- New York Times Book Review "Ogawa evokes the secret crushes and crushing secrets of girlhood with charm and elegance." -- People "The reader is immersed in [Tomoko's] ardent love for her fragile cousin, and comes to appreciate how history seeps into every life, even the most sheltered ones." -- The Atlantic "A transfixing coming of age tale." --TIME "Capturing a Japanese girl's adolescence in the early 1970s, this hypnotic book shimmers with eccentric enigmas." -- Boston Globe "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 "It's the kind of transformative trip that makes for a powerful read at any time of year, but feels especially appropriate when you're craving a (literary) summer sojourn." -- Bustle "Powerful in its nuanced details, Mina's Matchbox is an immersive and poignant coming-of-age story...Curious and filled with wonder...Ogawa's masterful descriptions, too, add depth and suggest simmering secrets that wait to boil over...An elegant and stirring work that captures the dreams of youth, and the lingering sweetness that can remain even after those dreams have faded." -- Bookpage, starred review "Focusing on characters of an age when the world seems full of wonder and possibility, this engaging bildungsroman explores the friendship and mutual curiosity between two extraordinary young people... Facing complicated themes with deceptively simple language, she pulls off a neat trick here, painting everything in miniature and often in hindsight without losing the immediacy of Tomoko's experiences. A charming yet guileless exploration of childhood's ephemeral pleasures and reflexive poignancy." -- Kirkus , starred review "Captivating...Ogawa pulls off the rare feat of making childhood memories both credible and provocative. Readers will be hypnotized." -- Publishers Weekly , starred review "In language as clean and delicate as a whisper, the cousins' year of shared adventures frays as tragedies chip away at the public façade of the family's private realities...Ogawa writes with exquisite artistry about the complications of a close-knit household whose members are quietly protective of its wounding secrets, as seen through the eyes of a young girl; the novel is beautifully translated by Snyder." -- Library Journal , starred review "[12-year-old] Tomoko proves to be a prodigiously astute observer, discovering truths behind closed doors...Remarkable is the timing of Snyder's impressively seamless translation. Ogawa already brilliantly, deftly broadens her not-quite-quotidian family saga with pivotal world events." -- Booklist , starred review, Praise for Mina's Matchbox A Most Anticipated Book of the Summer from The Atlantic and Publishers Weekly "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 "The reader is immersed in [Tomoko's] ardent love for her fragile cousin, and comes to appreciate how history seeps into every life, even the most sheltered ones." -- The Atlantic Praise for Yoko Ogawa's Previous Work "A masterpiece...A rare work of patient and courageous vision." -- The Guardian on The Memory Police "Ogawa's fable echoes the themes of George Orwell's 1984 , Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 , and Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude , but it has a voice and power all its own." -- Time on The Memory Police "An intimate, suspenseful drama of courage and endurance." -- The Wall Street Journal on The Memory Police "Gorgeous, cinematic...This novel has all the charm and restraint of any by Ishiguro or Kenzaburo oe, and the whimsy of Murakami." -- Los Angeles Times on The Housekeeper and the Professor "Deceptively elegant...This is one of those books written in such lucid, unpretentious language that reading it is like looking into a deep pool of clear water. Dive into Yoko Ogawa's world...and you find yourself tugged by forces more felt than seen." -- The New York Times Book Review on The Housekeeper and the Professor "Ogawa's fiction reflects like a fun-house mirror...[Like] Haruki Murakami, Ogawa writes stories that float free of any specific culture, anchoring themselves instead in the landscape of the mind." -- Washington Post on The Diving Pool "The stories seem to penetrate right to the heart of the world...[Ogawa's] spare technique is very skilled. Every word is put to work." -- Hilary Mantel on The Diving Pool "Ogawa has long been recognized as one of Japan's best writers of the postwar generation." -- BookForum on The Diving Pool, Praise for Mina's Matchbox A Most Anticipated Book of the Summer from Publishers Weekly "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 Praise for Yoko Ogawa's Previous Work "A masterpiece...A rare work of patient and courageous vision." -- The Guardian on The Memory Police "Ogawa's fable echoes the themes of George Orwell's 1984 , Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 , and Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude , but it has a voice and power all its own." -- Time on The Memory Police "An intimate, suspenseful drama of courage and endurance." -- The Wall Street Journal on The Memory Police "Gorgeous, cinematic...This novel has all the charm and restraint of any by Ishiguro or Kenzaburo oe, and the whimsy of Murakami." -- Los Angeles Times on The Housekeeper and the Professor "Deceptively elegant...This is one of those books written in such lucid, unpretentious language that reading it is like looking into a deep pool of clear water. Dive into Yoko Ogawa's world...and you find yourself tugged by forces more felt than seen." -- The New York Times Book Review on The Housekeeper and the Professor "Ogawa's fiction reflects like a fun-house mirror...[Like] Haruki Murakami, Ogawa writes stories that float free of any specific culture, anchoring themselves instead in the landscape of the mind." -- Washington Post on The Diving Pool "The stories seem to penetrate right to the heart of the world...[Ogawa's] spare technique is very skilled. Every word is put to work." -- Hilary Mantel on The Diving Pool "Ogawa has long been recognized as one of Japan's best writers of the postwar generation." -- BookForum on The Diving Pool, Praise for Mina's Matchbox A Most Anticipated Book of the Summer from The Atlantic, TIME, Boston Globe, Bustle, and Publishers Weekly "The reader is immersed in [Tomoko's] ardent love for her fragile cousin, and comes to appreciate how history seeps into every life, even the most sheltered ones." -- The Atlantic "A transfixing coming of age tale." --TIME "Capturing a Japanese girl's adolescence in the early 1970s, this hypnotic book shimmers with eccentric enigmas." -- Boston Globe "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 "It's the kind of transformative trip that makes for a powerful read at any time of year, but feels especially appropriate when you're craving a (literary) summer sojourn." -- Bustle "Focusing on characters of an age when the world seems full of wonder and possibility, this engaging bildungsroman explores the friendship and mutual curiosity between two extraordinary young people... Facing complicated themes with deceptively simple language, she pulls off a neat trick here, painting everything in miniature and often in hindsight without losing the immediacy of Tomoko's experiences. A charming yet guileless exploration of childhood's ephemeral pleasures and reflexive poignancy." -- Kirkus , starred review "Captivating...Ogawa pulls off the rare feat of making childhood memories both credible and provocative. Readers will be hypnotized." -- Publishers Weekly , starred review "[12-year-old] Tomoko proves to be a prodigiously astute observer, discovering truths behind closed doors...Remarkable is the timing of Snyder's impressively seamless translation. Ogawa already brilliantly, deftly broadens her not-quite-quotidian family saga with pivotal world events." -- Booklist , starred review, Praise for Mina's Matchbox A Most Anticipated Book of the Summer from The Atlantic, TIME, Boston Globe, Bustle, and Publishers Weekly "The reader is immersed in [Tomoko's] ardent love for her fragile cousin, and comes to appreciate how history seeps into every life, even the most sheltered ones." -- The Atlantic "A transfixing coming of age tale." --TIME "Capturing a Japanese girl's adolescence in the early 1970s, this hypnotic book shimmers with eccentric enigmas." -- Boston Globe "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 "It's the kind of transformative trip that makes for a powerful read at any time of year, but feels especially appropriate when you're craving a (literary) summer sojourn." -- Bustle "Focusing on characters of an age when the world seems full of wonder and possibility, this engaging bildungsroman explores the friendship and mutual curiosity between two extraordinary young people... Facing complicated themes with deceptively simple language, she pulls off a neat trick here, painting everything in miniature and often in hindsight without losing the immediacy of Tomoko's experiences. A charming yet guileless exploration of childhood's ephemeral pleasures and reflexive poignancy." -- Kirkus , starred review "Captivating...Ogawa pulls off the rare feat of making childhood memories both credible and provocative. Readers will be hypnotized." -- Publishers Weekly , starred review "In language as clean and delicate as a whisper, the cousins' year of shared adventures frays as tragedies chip away at the public façade of the family's private realities...Ogawa writes with exquisite artistry about the complications of a close-knit household whose members are quietly protective of its wounding secrets, as seen through the eyes of a young girl; the novel is beautifully translated by Snyder." -- Library Journal , starred review "[12-year-old] Tomoko proves to be a prodigiously astute observer, discovering truths behind closed doors...Remarkable is the timing of Snyder's impressively seamless translation. Ogawa already brilliantly, deftly broadens her not-quite-quotidian family saga with pivotal world events." -- Booklist , starred review
SynopsisTHE 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., 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.
LC Classification NumberPL858.G37M5613 2024
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