Name: The Heartbeat Library
SKU: 57014701
Price: 909.00 TWD
Availability: InStock
Author: Laura Imai Messina
ISBN: 9781419772498

Type

Physical Book

Author

Laura Imai Messina

Publisher

Overlook Press

Language

English

Pages

400

Format

Hardcover

ISBN13

9781419772498

Synopsis "The Heartbeat Library"

The Heartbeat Library is a tender, contemplative, and uplifting novel about grief, friendship, and the many ways we heal, by the internationally bestselling author of The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World. On the peaceful Japanese island of Teshima there is a library of heartbeats, a place where the heartbeats of visitors from all around the world are collected. In this small, isolated building, the heartbeats of people who are still alive or have already passed away continue to echo. Several miles away, in the ancient city of Kamakura, two lonely souls meet: Shuichi, a 40-year-old illustrator, who returns to his hometown to fix up the house of his recently deceased mother, and eight-year-old Kenta, a child who wanders like a shadow around Shuichi's house. Day by day, the trust between Shuichi and Kenta grows, until they discover they share a bond that will tie them together for life. Their journey will lead them to Teshima and to the library of heartbeats . . . Enchanting, touching, and emotionally riveting, The Heartbeat Library is a story about loss and hope, pain and joy, reality and imagination, and the promise of healing and overcoming the odds thanks to the relationships we build and rediscover. Inspired by Les Archives du Coeur, an art installation in Japan that permanently houses recordings of the heartbeats of people throughout the world, Laura Imai Messina returns in this novel to the themes and atmospheres of her internationally bestselling novel The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World, combining a real-life pilgrimage site of healing with an unforgettable and heartwarming story.

Laura Imai Messina

(Author)

View Author's Page

Laura Imai Messina (Rome, August 16, 1981) is an Italian writer and academic who has been living in Japan since she was 23. She graduated in Literature from the University of La Sapienza in Rome and then moved to Tokyo, where she earned a master's degree in Comparative Cultures at the International Christian University and a PhD in Literary Studies at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

She is the author of several literary works, among which stands out What You Entrust to the Wind (Quel che affidiamo al vento, 2020), an international success translated into more than twenty languages. The novel is inspired by the "Wind Phone," a symbolic phone located in Japan that allows people to talk to deceased loved ones, and tells the story of a woman seeking to heal after losing her family in the 2011 tsunami. The work has been adapted into a film by the producer Cattleya.

In addition to her career as a novelist, Laura Imai Messina teaches Italian language at Japanese universities and collaborates with media such as La Repubblica and La Stampa. She has also written children's books and essays about Japan, standing out for her ability to bridge cultural gaps between East and West.

See less