On sleepless nights, I open the matchbox and reread the story of the girl who gathered shooting stars.
'Beguiling' New Yorker
After the death of her father, twelve-year-old Tomoko is sent to live for a year with her uncle in the coastal town of Ashiya. It is a year which will change her life.
While the 1970s transform Japan, her uncle's magnificent colonial mansion is a place out of time; its sprawling gardens are even home to a pet pygmy hippo. Equally beguiling are Tomoko's relatives, especially her cousin Mina. Their growing friendship draws her into an intoxicating world - one full of secret crushes and elaborate storytelling.
Rich with the magic and mystery of youth, Mina's Matchbox is an evocative snapshot of a moment frozen in time, and a striking depiction of a family on the edge of collapse.
'Beautifully composed' Financial Times
'Effervescent' New York Times Book Review
'Transfixing' Time
'I read Mina's Matchbox like a besotted child, enraptured, never wanting it to end' Ruth Ozeki
Paperback / softback | 288 pages | Published August 2025
