{"product_id":"minas-matchbox-9780593316085","title":"Mina's Matchbox","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom the award-winning, psychologically astute author of \u003ci\u003eThe Memory Police\u003c\/i\u003e, a hypnotic, introspective novel about an affluent Japanese family navigating buried secrets, and their young house guest who uncovers them.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn 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, \u003ci\u003eMina's Matchbox \u003c\/i\u003eis an evocative snapshot of a moment frozen in time--and a striking depiction of a family on the edge of collapse.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Pantheon Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/13\/2024\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780593316085\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 288\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.96lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.25h x 5.50w x 0.75d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/01\/2024 pg. 1\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/03\/2024\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Yoko Ogawa","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44315150483637,"sku":"9780593316085","price":23.8,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_d483effa-a5cb-45c0-8c4c-7f97e6631c65.jpg?v=1718720436","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/minas-matchbox-9780593316085","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}