Messina Imparts Us With Invaluable Lessons About Life Beyond Grief

As she recalled the moment she knew her life was about to change, it sparked her inspiration for her work, becoming the centerpiece of what makes her debut novel a literary asterism. The idea of finding herself thrust in the midst of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, amidst a tsunami that has taken the lives of many, we learn to accept that those who have left us continue to play an important presence in our current lives — by simply talking to them over a phone booth set up in the center of a garden.