This short story is even shorter than the number of pages would suggest, being divided into seventy four chapters, some consisting of just a few words or an image. The title is based on the real Bell Gardia Wind phone booth on a hillside near Otsuchi on the Pacific shore of northern Japan. Survivors of the March 11, 2011 typhoon and tsunami from all over the nation come to converse on the phone with their dead or missing loved ones who were washed out to sea, their conversations being carried on the high winds. The symbolism of the “edge of the World” as the end of life on earth is hard to miss.
Each of the few characters grieves in their own way, but they all seek relief from deep nostalgic longing as they yearn for a connection to the dead by talking into the unconnected phone. The transition into acceptance and getting on with their lives is painful but touching.
A traumatized preschool girl who lost her mother in the tsunami is mute until she visits the phone booth; a young radio talk show host takes a long time to recover from the loss of her mother and daughter in the sea, visits the phone booth regularly, and eventually screws up the courage to talk on the phone; details of exactly what she hears from her dead mother and daughter remain unrevealed, but she gradually comes to terms with her loss thereafter.
The whole story is suffused with the rites and customs peculiar to Japanese society and the Shinto religion with vague hints of a belief in an afterlife. There are far too many names of unfamiliar Japanese foods and customs for this unilingual anglophone.The author is an Italian, now living with her Japanese husband in Tokyo and the book was originally written in Italian.
The writing is engaging and poetic, rich in symbolism and mysticism. Perhaps the most concrete statement in the book is “Tsunamis had to exist for a reason too. They stirred up the cosmos, just like earthquakes, floods, landslides and avalanches. All that was a disaster for mankind, all that killed, burned, drowned, or displaced, protected the earth’s equilibrium.”
A short great story.
Thanks, Book Browse (the online site where I first read about this story)
The Passionate Reader 