Самые красивые цитаты из Mina's Matchbox — о книгах, конечно же. Оставлю несколько здесь.

Слышала недавно высказывание, что японская литература чаще всего говорит о двух вещах: о неизбежности смерти и о самой себе, то есть о литературе. Это правило применимо и здесь, достигает пика оно в сцене, где герои узнают из новостей о самоубийстве писателя Ясунари Кавабаты.

“Was this Kawabata-san a friend of yours?” I asked to no one in particular. “No,” said Grandmother Rosa, unfolding her hands. “I just thought…since you’re all so upset…” “We didn’t know him. We hadn’t even met him. But Kawabata-san was a writer, a man who wrote books. We have some of them here in the house. He wasn’t a friend, but we were connected to him. Everyone reads his books; that’s why we’re so sad.”

Другие цитаты не менее прекрасны; книги и литература занимают в Mina's Matchbox особое место, как и в жизни его героинь:

In the house at Ashiya, books were considered more precious than any sculpture or piece of pottery. There were bookshelves in every room, so that a volume would be close at hand as soon as one thought of it, and the children were free to read the adults’ books. Pharmaceutical texts in German, Mina’s picture books, and the appendices to the issues of The Ladies’ Companion that Yoneda-san collected were all viewed as equally important. There had not been a single bookshelf in my home in Okayama, the only printed materials being the fashion magazines or sewing pattern books my mother used in her work, so at first I was overwhelmed to see such an enormous number of books outside of a public library. I wondered whether one family really needed so many of them.

И еще одна.

The care for the seventeen rooms was consigned to professional cleaners, but Yoneda-san, a stickler for cleanliness, was also constantly polishing every last nook and cranny. The house literally sparkled. Whenever I left something lying about, she immediately noticed and gave me a scolding. My dirty gym uniform, photocopies from class, empty Fressy bottles—everything had to be put in its place immediately.

The one exception was books. Even if Mina left a book sitting open on the table in the sunroom, Yoneda-san would never presume to move it or put it away. Beyond the page lay an unknown world, and the open book was a portal to that world that should not be thoughtlessly disturbed lest Mina be unable to find her way back. Or so Yoneda-san believed.