My review of Mina’s Matchbox by Yoko Ogawa (trans. Stephen Snyder): “Like a sepia-toned photograph beginning to curl at the edges, [Matchbox] is a wistful story of the blink-and-you-miss-it moment between childhood and adulthood set at an important but easily-overlooked moment in Japanese history.”

“Mina’s Matchbox” by Yoko Ogawa

Tomoko lost her father when she was six years old. Now that she’s twelve, she will spend a year living with her mother’s wealthy sister in Ashiya while her mother goes back to school to study dress…