telephone booths

When Yui loses both her mother and her daughter in the tsunami, she begins to mark the passage of time from that date onward: Everything is relative to March 11, 2011, the day the tsunami tore Japan apart, and when grief took hold of her life.

"When the tsunami destroyed Makio's village, Makio lost his father. Sadly, he was not alone. Everyone lost someone the day the big wave came. With the villagers silenced by grief, Makio's anger at the ocean grows. Then one day his neighbor, Mr. Hirota, starts a mysterious project that helps the villagers heal. How? Mr. Hirota builds a phone booth on a hill, giving Makio and the villagers a chance to feel close to their loved ones again. Although the phone is not connected to anything, words are carried on the wind"--Provided by publisher.

When cellular telephones arrive on the scene, a once-popular Manhattan phonebooth becomes shabby and lonely until a power outage reminds everyone of how useful it can be.