Welcome to J-Sei’s Virtual Book Club!
Our next book that we’ll be reading together is THE PHONE BOOTH AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD by Laura Imai Messina, translated by Lucy Rand
ENGAGING IN BOOK CLUB
Join the Club, Buy the Book
Join the J-Sei Virtual Book Club and connect with others as we delve into The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World, a newly published novel inspired by true events surrounding the devastating earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011.
Buy the Book – We have arranged with Eastwind Books to handle book sales. You can order the book online at the discounted price of 10% off and either pick up at the store, arrange for shipping, or designate J-Sei for delivery/pick-up in your order.
READING – For this book, we ask you to read the book at your own pace. As you’re reading, you can comment online as it strikes you and share your impressions with fellow Book Club members on Discord or the secure Book Club webpage.
REFLECTING – An occasional posting will be added during the month as a check in and to solicit your feedback. Click on READ MORE for the full post and to access the comment section. You’re free to respond to any comments and also submit your own observations, opinions, and questions in the Comment area of the Post.
CHAT – For an online chat with fellow Book Club participants, connect to DISCORD. To connect to DISCORD, click on the CONNECT button in the DISCORD box below. If it’s your first time, you will need to create an account. Once you are in the JSei Community, find the Book Club Channel on the left column. You can read the chat and add your own comments and reflections. Discord also allows any connected members to video-chat live in the Discord Lounge anytime.
DISCUSS – After allowing time for members to finish reading the book, around April or thereabouts, we will schedule a Zoom meeting to get together and hear everybody’s thoughts about the book. Other special events may occur; members will be notified in advance.
JOIN BOOK CLUB – For those interested in participating, send inquiry here.
Thank you!
– Kathy Hashimoto, moderator
J-Sei Book Club Pick: The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World
The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World follows two people, Yui and Takeshi, who meet at a phone box located in a garden at the top of a hill in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture — one of the towns hardest hit by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. There, travelers from all over Japan and the world come to the phone box, called kaze no denwa (“phone of the wind”), to speak on an unconnected rotary phone and send messages to their lost loved ones. The novel follows Yui and Takeshi, and the various people they meet, as they navigate their grief and learn to live and love again.
Based on the actual kaze no denwa in Japan, The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World explores death, grief, survival — and hope.
Scroll down for more information on the Author and Translator.
Reflections & Check-in
Join the JSei Book Club to participate in the conversation. Read the complete blog post, leave comments, and check back again to hear from others.
Protected: Book Club – The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
J-Sei’s Virtual Book Club: The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World
Join J-Sei Book Club and connect with fellow book lovers as we read this gentle Japanese story together.
“A tender tribute to grief and what it teaches us. Healing is not linear, and the ones we lose never truly leave us…. The phone booth is a magical place that not only connects the living to the dead but also the living to the living.“
— BookPage
Laura Imai Messina was born and raised in Rome, Italy. In 2006 she moved to Tokyo and earned master’s and doctorate degrees in the Comparative Studies Department, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. A novelist and blogger in Italian, Messina has made her English-language publishing debut with The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World. She lives in Japan with her Japanese husband and children.
Lucy Rand is a British writer and translator who lived for a time in Japan translating pharmaceutical texts. One of her first literary projects was translating Quel che affidiamo al vento (“What We Entrust to the Wind”) from Italian into The Phone Box at the Edge of the World, the UK edition that was published in 2020 and was then adapted for US publication in 2021.
Previous Book Club books
