Praise for Mina's Matchbox A Most Anticipated Book of the Summer from People, The Atlantic, TIME, Boston Globe, Bustle, and Publishers Weekly A Best Book of August from the
Christian Science Monitor A Best New Book of the Week from
Parade "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 "A magnificent translation...A lovely epistolary epilogue allows readers to close the book contented that
Mina's Matchbox is almost a fairy tale. Its moral? Childish curiosity is as fleeting as the flame of a beautifully struck match--capture it before it's gone and you can kindle a lifetime love of learning."
--Minneapolis Star-Tribune "One of the literary events of the year."
--Parade "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 "Gemlike...Ogawa's storytelling is radiant."
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Christian Science Monitor "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."
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Ruth Ozeki, author of The Book of Form and Emptiness
"Hypnotic, introspective."
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Daily Kos "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."
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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 "I just loved it. It's an absolute delight of a book...A jewel-box of a novel. It's wonderful."
--Suzanna Hermans of Oblong Books on WAMC "A delicate domestic novel...A quiet novel to savor!"
--Historical Novel Society "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."
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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."
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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
