Ruth Ozeki reads from her novel A Tale for the Time Being"

A Tale for the Time Being is a novel about both the near–impossibility and the necessity of communication.

Amid the garish neon glare of Tokyo, sixteen–year–old Naoko Yasutani pours out her thoughts into a diary. Humbled by poverty since her father lost his high–income tech job in Silicon Valley and had to move the family back to Japan, Nao has been bullied mercilessly in school, and she regards her diary as a protracted suicide note--but one she will not finish until she has committed to its pages the life story of her 104–year–old great–grandmother, a Buddhist nun named Jiko.

Years later on the other side of the Pacific, shielded from damage by a freezer bag and a Hello Kitty lunchbox, Nao’s diary washes up on the shore of British Columbia and falls into the hands of a writer named Ruth, who becomes captivated by Nao’s revelations. As Ruth’s fascination grows, however, so too does her sense of dread: Has Nao followed through on her suicidal pledge? If not, is there still time to save her? Or has Nao survived her bout with adolescent angst, only to be swept away to her death by the cataclysmic tsunami of March 2011? Slowly Ruth pulls the pieces of the mystery together, learning about the lives of an extraordinary family whose history is both inspirational and tragic.

Ever mindful of the small, A Tale for the Time Being also contemplates the large: quantum mechanics, Zen meditation, computer science, climate change, and the nature of being all pass beneath the author’s thoughtful gaze.

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Ruth Ozeki has been an independent filmmaker, winning awards for her movies Body of Correspondence and Halving the Bones. Her two earlier novels, My Year of Meats and All Over Creation, were both recognized as Notable Books by The New York Times. A Tale for the Time Being was a finalist for the 2013 Man Booker Prize. An ordained Zen Buddhist priest, Ozeki divides her time between New York and British Columbia, where she writes, runs, and raises ducks with her husband, artist Oliver Kellhammer.