From the author of the international bestseller "The Phone Booth at the End of the World" Laura Imai Messina has a special ability to capture the hidden magic of the world and tell us about it. Each of her stories is also a journey that leads to our innermost selves. There's a small island in the Seto Inland Sea, shaped like a ship's propeller, with no more than 150 inhabitants. The island is beautiful, bathed in light, but it's now almost deserted: the schools are closing, and the remaining residents are growing old. A young woman crosses over to Awashima on a cold spring morning. Risa carries a mysterious bag full of envelopes. The island's small, floating post office collects letters from all over Japan and the world. These are special messages, letters that can be mailed but never delivered. Risa is here for a very specific reason. Her father is a postman, and he spent his entire life ensuring that not a single letter went astray. So, while she learned dedication and reliability from her father, her mother's legacy is far more complex. She knew magical words that could summon forest spirits, and her dreamy gaze would sometimes suddenly reveal what remained hidden from others. Her mother taught Risa poetry and a curiosity for the unknown, for it was from encounters with the unknown that the extraordinary could be born, she said. Secretly, Risa hopes to find her mother's personal notes on Awashima, for her mother left her far too soon, and Risa's memories are slowly fading... New product