A tale for the time being

'Hi! My name is Nao, and I am a time being. Do you know what a time being is? Well, if you give me a moment, I will tell you.'

 

Ruth is a novelist living on a remote island off Canada’s Pacific northwest. She discovers a lunchbox washed ashore. It could be debris from the 2011 Japanese tsunami. Inside the Hello Kitty lunchbox is a diary written by Nao, a 16 year old Japanese schoolgirl. Nao has decided there’s only one escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates’ bullying. But before she ends it all she wants to document the life of her great-grandmother. In a small cafe in Tokyo, Nao writes about the joy and heartbreak of family life and her great-grandmother, a 104-year-old Zen anarchist nun.  

CITATION: Ozeki, Ruth. A tale for the time being. New York Viking, 2013.  422 pages. 

Also available in large print , audiobook, ebook & kindle. 

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2013. 

Book promotional video.

Watch the author Ruth Ozeki video interview.