A Tale for the Time Being

A Tale for the Time Being

Ruth Ozeki

Viking



In Tokyo, sixteen-year-old Nao has decided there’s only one escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates’ bullying. But before she ends it all, Nao first plans to document the life of her great grandmother, a Buddhist nun who’s lived more than a century. A diary is Nao’s only solace—and will touch lives in ways she can scarcely imagine. Across the Pacific, we meet Ruth, a novelist living on a remote island who discovers a collection of artifacts washed ashore in a Hello Kitty lunchbox—possibly debris from the devastating 2011 tsunami. As the mystery of its contents unfolds, Ruth is pulled into the past, into Nao’s drama and her unknown fate, and forward into her own future.

New York Times Bestseller

Awards

Booker Prize shortlist

Indies Choice Awards finalist

Los Angeles Times Book Prize

2013 UK Independent Booksellers Award

Kitschies’ Red Tentacle

PEN Open Book Award nominee

Best of Year

Good Housekeeping

Goodreads

Top Monthly

Barnes & Nobles

Costco/Pennie’s Picks

Indie Next