On sleepless nights, I open the matchbox and reread the story of the girl who gathered shooting stars

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.

'Beguiling' New Yorker

‘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