★Ogawa, Yoko. Mina’s Matchbox. Pantheon. Aug. 2024. 288p. tr. from Japanese by Stephen B. Snyder. ISBN 9780593316085. $28. F

In 1972, the widowed mother of twelve-year-old Tomoko sends her to live with wealthy relatives in Ashiya for a year while she furthers her education in Tokyo. The family welcomes Tomoko, who bonds with her fragile cousin Mina, 11, whose needs drive the household’s daily activities. Tomoko is an observant innocent—curious and charmed by Mina’s collection of matchboxes and the stories tucked inside; by her uncle’s frequent absences; by Mina’s pygmy hippo whom she rides to school; by Great Grandmother Rosa, a Holocaust survivor; by Rosa’s best friend, Yoneda-san, who has run the household for more than 50 years; by her removed aunt, an obsessive proofreader; and by the emotional distance between Mina’s absent brother and his father. In language as clean and delicate as a whisper, the cousins’ year of shared adventures frays as tragedies chip away at the public façade of the family’s private realities. VERDICT Ogawa (The Memory Police), an award-winning novelist both in her native Japan and in the United States, writes with exquisite artistry about the complications of a close-knit household whose members are quietly protective of its wounding secrets, as seen through the eyes of a young girl; the novel is beautifully translated by Snyder.