While this is a story about grief, it isn’t a depressing read. Yui’s sorrow, along with the sorrow of all the visitors to the phone, is palpable yet also intertwined with hope and forgiveness. Yui has faced unimaginable tragedy and yet her compassion and resilience remain. E i due si innamorano. E Taseki glielo avrebbe spiegato a Yui “Che è un vero miracolo l’amore. Anche il secondo, anche quello che arriva per sbaglio.” The blurb reads: “Struggling to come to terms with her grief, she hears a story about a man who has an old disused telephone box in his garden. There, those who have lost loved ones find the strength to speak to them and begin to come to terms with their grief. As news of the phone box spreads, people travel there from miles around. Soon Yui makes a pilgrimage to the phone box, too. But once there she cannot bring herself to speak into the receiver. Then she finds 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...” For me, the Wind Phone is mainly this: a metaphor that suggests how precious it is to hold on tight to joy as well as pain. That even when we are confronted by the subtractions, the things that life takes from us, we have to open ourselves up to the many additions it can offer too."

Everybody had heard the voice of the young woman working at the city hall, one hundred yards from the sea, who hadn't taken a moment's break from broadcasting the tsunami warning through the loudspeaker, the repeated command to run up hills, climb to the highest floors of reinforced concrete buildings. Everybody knew that even she hadn't been saved. A moving and uplifting anatomisation of grief and the small miraculous moments that persuade people to start looking forward again' - Sunday Times L’amore è come la terapia, funziona solo quando ci credi». «Ma soprattutto» gli faceva eco lei «solo quando ti senti pronto a lavorarci.» There is a stillness and quietness to the book that makes each movement all the more meaningful. The words carry a weight that makes each sentence feel intentional; there’s no fat to trim. Moving and heart-breaking, Yui’s story—and that of the Wind Phone—is equally uplifting and heart-warming. E insomma» aveva esordito la voce che aspirava a stretti intervalli una sigaretta «c’è questa cabina telefonica in mezzo a un giardino, su una collina isolata dal resto. Il telefono non è collegato ma le voci le porta via il vento. Dico Pronto Yōko, come stai? e mi pare di tornare ad essere quello di una volta, mia moglie che mi ascoltava dalla cucina, sempre indaffarata sulla colazione o sulla cena, io che brontolavo perché il caffè mi bruciava la lingua.»Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of The Overlook Press. In parts, it is also a reflection on religion. What it is and what it is for, and what we do instead of it if we have no such beliefs. Maybe it takes an atheist to need a disconnected telephone, where the Buddhist would simply stand in front of the family butsudan and do exactly the same thing. Or an animist/pantheist or whatever else it is I might be to go sit on a beach and speak to the waves. The harrowing aftermath of a natural disaster strips away normality with the sudden and unprepared death of loved ones and the destruction of property. Yui is heartbroken following a Tsunami that hit Japan on 11 March 2011 and took her mother and young daughter’s lives. Yui radiates a reverent sorrow, which captures the sense of loss. Amidst heartbreak and tenderness, she tries making sense of everything through a shroud of grief. Both Yui and Takeshi independently set out to find the phone box in the town of Bell Gardia. They both get lost and in the process end up bumping into each other. They then make the journey to the phone box together. The Phone Box at the Edge of the World is powerful and moving, thoughtful and evocative. Messina writes with both clarity and restraint, with the ability to reveal much in a single, compressed paragraph. In an early description of Yui, Messina writes:

The novel will publish on 25th June 2020 as one of the fiction launch titles of Bonnier Books UK’s new literary fiction and non-fiction imprint, Manilla Press. Incredibly moving. It will break your heart and soothe your soul' - Stacey Halls, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Familiars A radio host, Yui first heard about the wind phone when she was moderating a discussion on grief. A caller, who had also lost a loved one in the 2011 tsunami, described the phone box with a phone doesn’t work; there’s no connection but the caller says that “your voice is carried away with the wind” and when he speaks to his wife he feels Takeshi goes into the phone box and talks to his wife. Yui walks in the garden and doesn't talk to her mother or her daughter. She looks at the ocean and eats chocolate to hold the nausea at bay. But even in the very first days, she went and looked at the ocean. That isn't explained in the book, to me, it is a refusal to let the beauty of nature be lost to its cruelty.As the pilgrimages to the phone box become a new routine, Yui and Takeshi’s lives are further entwined as they, and the characters they meet, each deal with grief—and with hope—in different ways. Soon Yui makes her own pilgrimage to the phone booth, too. But once there she cannot bring herself to speak into the receiver. Instead she finds Takeshi, a bereaved husband whose own daughter has stopped talking in the wake of her mother’s death.