Small Boxes, Yoko Ogawa, Sophie Refle

The narrator of this book lives in an old kindergarten. In this place, where everything is scaled to those who once frequented it, there is a room where strange little boxes are kept, over which she watches with particular care.
Some evenings, this woman positions herself on the hill to observe strangers listening to music in the wild that only they can hear. Other times, she walks in the company of a certain Mr. Baryton, who entrusts her with the letters of his beloved because only she can still decipher them…
To read a novel by Yôko Ogawa is to enter a universe that is both strange and familiar, in which the hushed song of our memories resonates.