 and you're very welcome back and well it's time for our Facebook review and our Facebook review, our book review on Facebook and joining me in the studio tonight I have got Connie McGrengan and Tina Gower, ladies you're very welcome. So tell me now just give us a bit synopsis of the story Connie. Right well the story sort of centered around you who was a woman from Tokyo and it was based on her life following her devastating loss. She lost her mother and she lost her daughter in the tsunami in Tokyo in March 2011. So it began with her trying to find some sort of peace and she was a radio presenter so she during one of her shows she found out about a phone box and it was a disconnected phone box where people could go to talk, pretend essentially to talk to their loved ones or people that were bereaved. So she decided to make the trek to this phone box which took her it was a fair wee bit away and during this she met up with some very interesting characters and none more so than take she who became she became very good friends with and that escalated then. So that was the concept as this phone box which is actual true story so the phone box does actually exist. I think about 300 kilometers away from Tokyo and so while it was based on fact it was a work of fiction so it was interesting. And Tina did it appeal to you the fact that it was a true story that there was actually a phone box that you could talk to your departed loved ones? I think it certainly helped especially given the context I mean we all remember the horrible box and day tsunami of Christmas has gone past you know that was ever present in my mind because you could picture imagine the horror and and it was kind of Yui's life post tsunami. I loved the whole idea of the phone box I thought it was a beautiful way to help people manage their grief. I was very struck by the parallel Yui like yourself was a radio presenter and she didn't struggle to communicate whenever she was on air she could really articulate herself really well but whenever it was trying to reach out to those that she had lost she couldn't articulate her grief at all and was quite a closed character so I found that parallel really interesting in her as a character as well. And you had and had suffered so much she'd lost her daughter and her mother in the tsunami and as you said she heard this phone box on the on the radio somebody phoned in and to talk about about someone that had passed them and you know the phone box I think it was a sort of a symbol that did help people to deal with their grief. Yeah. And the characters you what did you think of her? I liked her I liked her but we were just saying before we went on air there that she was quite like I suppose they're a different culture which is it from a different culture to us so at times I found her a wee bit annoying because I would be an impatient person and she wasn't she was very very very patient and she was a bit of an over-thinker you know when she was thinking about you know take she's daughter Hannah when she grew up and she went through so many different possibilities you know even down to you know watch food and uniforms and she was she was just a wee bit too much of an over-thinker but essentially she was a very very good person she was a very calm person and I think she wanted to be a good mother to Hannah and that's why she was the way she was you know I loved the bit where she did you know when she met the guy or she saw the guy that was that was mentally unstable in the community center after the after the tsunami and he was remember looking through the frame you know and then that she started doing that I love that aspect of her you know when she saw take she in the phone box and she was saying that his head was in part of this frame and his hand was in this frame and the way then that she bought Hannah the frame for her birthday and showed her you know and introduced her to the concept I like that and I suppose really that it wasn't a thriller or an action book Tina and you sort of knew from the beginning what was going to happen that you're told in the back cover that you meet to say key and that they're the former relationship and you sort of you sort of can gauge that they're going to you know become partners there's certainly an inevitability to that romance you know you're waiting for it to happen I felt that it was a wee bit of a slow burner the development of that relationship because they weren't together and then they were together and was like okay that's very quick you know I felt as if that could have been developed a wee tiny bit more I really enjoyed the novel but I felt it in some cases like that was a wee tiny bit slow and some parts were a bit rushed over and I don't want to give any spoilers wait but there's a part in the novel where her health is endangered or safety is endangered and that just you know it's it's quite a central point a pivotal point in the novel and then all of a sudden it's just brushed over and everything's moved on with so I would have liked a few things like that to have been developed a little bit further did like parallels between the fact that he had a daughter around you know what would have been her daughter's age had she lived and the fact that she worried about trying to replace the role of being you know Hannah's mother and then worried about her replacing her daughter so I thought there was a few interesting parallels in that but I did feel it moved slowly in places like I really wanted you know because it was such an emotionally charged novel I really wanted the tear-jerker I was really waiting for you know this onslaught of emotion and it kind of just really stayed on an even keel you know and I have and maybe maybe it's a very clever point by the author you know that grief is just always there and doesn't change but I had I really I just wanted the mascara to run you know I just wanted the tear-jerker that didn't come and of course Tiseke's daughter Hannah she didn't talk after his wife died she was non-verbal after losing her mother and that was lovely the way they managed that as well and I suppose maybe Uwe's part in her life helped her to really develop as a character as well and it does it does give you that sense of hope there was a bit of warmth there wasn't there between you and Hannah the take she's daughter and I I loved that Hannah accepted her so much you know after her mother passed away I know what the time had moved on but you know the way they bonded over the food they were eating it was quite Irish wasn't it? I was waiting for a cliffhanger what has to go wrong Robert Frost used the quotation if there's one thing I've learned about in life it goes on and I suppose for the characters even though they're managing their grief it does eventually just go on for them and I thought that was lovely too but I just wanted there to be a bit more of a punch or a little bit more excitement somewhere cliffhanger somewhere along the way I think the one thing that I would have liked more is what was Zuki-san's story you know that why did he set up the phone box there in the first place like you know had he suffered from grief and I remember reading Kristi Moore's autobiography years and years ago long before my father died actually and that's over 20 years ago and he said after his mother died that before she died he could only speak to her on the phone or face to face but after she died he could talk to her any place anywhere and he did and I sort of thought that that was really for the phone box that it symbolized you can talk to someone and just on the news yesterday saw that there was a monument being built out of wood in Warwickshire to symbolize all the people who had died over COVID and people could leave as something belonging to them there and it's actually going to be burned in a ritual in a few weeks time and I suppose that the phone box was the same it was a kind of a symbol or something something solid that you could go in it you could express your grief to your loved ones. Yeah and as well you didn't have a grave or no they did find her bodies they did find her mother's body and her daughter's body so she was lucky in that respect but like as Tina was saying like it took her almost to the end so she actually used the phone box you know as you say she was so articulate on the radio and she seemed to be so clever the way do you remember take she's mother kind of liked her at the start and then she sort of got a wee bit intimidated by her and she was saying how different she was in real life to the way she was on the radio and like then because you didn't get any idea of what you was like at that point but then her mother-in-law to be gave a great description of her so you learned more about her like it was very very cleverly written. It's a grief completely stripped her of any personality at all you know she was a husk or this shale of a woman and I see both then it's whenever they come into her life then at the end that Hannah starts to speak again she becomes a much slightly colorful character and then it comes full circle at the end that she can actually articulate how she feels yeah which which is a nice a nice way to come full circle at the end you know. I suppose everybody does deal with grief in different ways and I think Suki-san did say that to some extent we try to build our lives exactly like everyone else's but not death everyone reacts to death in their own way and I think she brought that out that some of the people character in the book they were angry with what had happened and just and others were just didn't know how to deal with it so I suppose would you agree with that Tina? I suppose so yeah I mean Yui just doesn't she completely internalizes her grief and she can't really express how she feels to Kishi she can't really you know she again going back to the radio personality she can be so articulate and so you know confident professionally but she just can't articulate how she feels and that's both the fact that it takes her all that time to where she struggles with her communication that then she comes full circle in the end but you know she manages I love the little enter chapters you know the little interjections where you really get a deeper characterization on the characters I love the little things that she remembered about her daughter down to little parts of outfits or down to dreams that you know and ideas they would have shared with each other just those little enter chapters I thought they were a really cute there was a nice way to get to know the characters that weren't were no longer alive or that were no longer and then I also thought that was clever yeah I was just going to ask you about the structure you know the long chapters and the little snippets and some of the chapters might have only had maybe three or four words but you got to know so much about her life and the people you know she compared Hannah with her daughter remember that part you know that Hannah would did eat this where her daughter didn't eat this and I thought that was lovely as well but but as you said to because the the two girls were so similar in age that really put a whole different slant on it you know for her it's such a guilt thing you know that would she be able to love Hannah as she would have loved her own daughter particularly when she was going through the teenage years and being a you know a brat or whatever you know as I say she's over she's she'd are all grown up and like she had to go away to come to terms with that it was a lovely line in the novel that compliments that was we're still we're still parents even when our children are no longer here and I thought that was lovely as well you know she still felt that were sense responsibility to her daughter when her daughter wasn't with her anymore and then she managed to transfer that on to Hannah's as her relationship with the key she grew as well and also I thought something nice about the book was the way that introduced a lot of customers like you know the little altar that they had and houses for the dead and I thought that she was very clever in introducing a lot of customers from Japan and the book is you know as she went on and even little references to music or references to articles that would have they would have written her paintings they would have seen it just seemed that helped to add a bit of depth to some of the characters especially the characters that day yeah yeah yeah and the glossary of the back of the book as well helped you to understand some of the Japanese terms I thought that was quite clever too so Tina what what what would make a good book for you what what do you think would be an ideal book for you I like something that's a bit quirky I've always been a big Patrick McCabe fan something that very intrinsically Irish and Patrick McCabe also infuses music especially Irish folk music and his work and that kind of helps you to appreciate it none of their layer I love humor and I love something that is nice and witty and recently the nicest book I've read in the last 12 minutes a shemosaur alias did you hear mommy died again essentially Irish but it has to be something has to have a great good story a good plot has to be something I'm an English teacher has to be something that's going to grab me linguistically as well but good story well-paced so judging what you've just said there how did how did the phone box at the age of the world tie in with with with your your views there I like the fact that it ended in a sense of hope I like the fact that it was cleverly structured and it came full circle at the end and I liked the book I'll stick with like I don't think I would go any further I couldn't say love you know but maybe a new departure for me in terms of especially the fact that it explores an alternative culture and given the fact that I would tend to stick to maybe Western world fiction or non-fiction so yeah it was definitely a new a new exploration for me certainly and out of ten what would you give it I'd probably go with around six and a half okay and Connie your idea of a good book and how does this tie in with it and I would say my books my kind of taste would be very eclectic I kind of I I read constantly and when I'm not reading I would have if I'm out walking around and I would have headphones and listening to a book I could I listen to anything and everything but like if it doesn't grab me within the first five six seven pages you know I can't take it and I'm very I'm fussy but not fussy if you know what I mean I would you know but no I I did like there was a moment in this book where I thought I'm not gonna be able to finish this like I am struggling here and if I had a we fast-forward button I would have just moved it on a wee bit but I was afraid to miss anything but I would definitely recommend the book and I would say to people you know say to my sisters or whatever do read it because it's a lovely book challenging at times but I think I would give it I would give it an eight I did I like the way she wrote she did annoy me sometimes and I was looking back and reading her history and I was reading about the history of the actual phone box and I think that grabbed me more you know that the that it was true do you know what I mean that this is not just something she made up that it was true so I thought it was a lovely the concept was lovely so I would definitely go a wee bit higher than Tina but I'm not an English teacher I'm just a stomach well ladies thank you so much for taking time out first of all to read the book and to review it and for coming on air and as I said once you're in Tina it's very hard to get out of this like you know Connie's been here before and many thanks for to yourself for a volunteer to do this tonight I had a great time thank you for having me on Jean thanks so much and you know it's nice to think that our departed loved ones are there somewhere and if we talk to them that's the listening and a lovely song that Maria McCormick wrote called above the clouds we're going to sign off