MAR /APRIL 2025
THE GREYTON POST
17
Greyton Book review: Mina’s Matchbox by Yoko Ogawa
Tomato loves Pochiko but what fascinates her most is Mina’s collection of matchboxes of varied and beautiful designs. Mina creates elaborate stories inspired by these matchboxes, reading them to Tomoko as the two girls grow closer, bonding over their shared imagination and childhood secrets. In Mina’s periods of illness Tomoko is left to navigate the mansion’s quiet mysteries alone, piecing together the enigma of her new family. Told from the perspective of an adult Tomoko looking back on this formative year, Mina’s Matchbox captures a world suspended in time, a childlike blend of memory, magic and nostalgia. Ogawa’s writing unfolds like a dream, drawing readers into a story that is both tender and haunting. If you enjoy beautifully written novels that unravel slowly yet keep you engaged with their quiet mysteries; Mina’s Matchbox is a book for you.
Bridget Impey
M ina’s Matchbox by Yoko Ogawa showcases her fascination with memory, identity, and nostalgia, themes she masterfully weaves into her storytelling. A celebrated writer in Japan, Ogawa has also gained international recognition, including a Booker Prize nomination for The Memory Police. Set in 1970’s Japan, the novel follows Tomoko, a young girl sent to live with her aunt and uncle in the coastal town of Ashiya after the death of her father. Coming from a working-class background, Tomoko finds her new home, a sprawling mansion with rambling gardens, both exotic and mysterious. Her aunt is devoted to her family, while her uncle remains mysteriously absent. Also in the house are her German grandmother a Holocaust survivor, her sickly cousin Mina and an unusual resident in a pygmy hippo named Pochiko, a remnant of the estate’s past as a zoo. Despite her frailty, Mina rides Pochiko to school whenever she is well enough.
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