On a remote island in British Columbia, a novelist named Ruth finds the washed-up diary of Nao, a sixteen-year-old girl living in Tokyo. Nao’s entries detail her experiences with severe school bullying, her father’s suicidal depression after losing his tech job, and her relationship with her great-grandmother, a 104-year-old Zen Buddhist nun. As Ruth reads, she becomes obsessed with determining if Nao survived the 2011 Japanese tsunami. The narrative alternates between Nao’s past and Ruth’s present, linked by Zen concepts of time, quantum mechanics, and the environmental debris crossing the Pacific Ocean.
This book is for readers interested in the intersections of Zen philosophy, theoretical physics, and modern Japanese history. It appeals to those who enjoy literature that bridges the gap between digital-age isolation and historical legacy. Readers gain a perspective on how individual lives are interconnected across temporal and geographical distances. They walk away with a specific understanding of how storytelling functions as a tool for survival and how the past remains active within the present moment.
Deep, inward-looking, contemplative, open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Wisdom Collector. Which reader are you?
Insights from A Tale for the Time Being
“A time being is someone who lives in time, and that means you, and me.”
Nao writes to be found by a reader she will never meet. It made me think about how we are all just waiting for someone to listen.
Jiko proves that being a Buddhist nun doesn't mean being stiff. She is a hundred years old and still has a wicked sense of humor.
Ruth finds a lunchbox on a remote beach in Canada. It reminds me that the ocean connects every tragedy and every secret we try to hide.
“The main thing is that I’m a time being.”
Bullying in a Tokyo school can feel like a slow death. Nao’s pain is so sharp it makes the page feel hot.
- Published
- 2013
- Publisher
- Viking Adult
- ISBN
- 9780143124870
- Language
- EN
