Promised to be breathtakingly beautiful and utterly heartbreaking (which at times it was), it unfortunately dragged on a bit too long for me.

 

Having lost both her mother and her daughter in the 2011 tsunami, Yui is overwhelmed with grief when she hears about Bell Gardia and “the wind phone” that lies within. People travel from miles away to visit this private garden, and if they can find the courage, step inside the phone box, pick up the receiver and speak to those they have lost. When Yui visits, she is unable to find this strength, but instead meets Takeshi, a widower whose young daughter has been unable to speak since their unbearable loss, and from here a friendship built on shared grief is formed. 

 

Bell Gardia is a real place which I was already familiar with having only recently read another book that used the wind phone as inspiration. I completely ADORED the other book based off this concept, and so was hoping I would thoroughly enjoy this as well, but unfortunately it just didn’t work for me. 

 

Laura’s writing is beautiful and there were some passages throughout that really spoke to me. She has really captured some of the raw emotions and experiences of grief and had this been a much shorter story (possibly a novella), I think it would have been wonderful. However, instead it felt like it dragged on and on and on, with no solid plot and rather simple character development. 

 

I really wanted to love this, and the beautiful prose and captivating narrator kept me going until the end, but ultimately it was just okay, likeable, but not something I would read or listen to again. It is currently free with an Audible subscription so if you are going through grief, I think you will find parts of it relatable, heartbreaking and encouraging (I did) and it might be worth a listen.