A Tale for the Time Being

Written by Ruth Ozeki

Narrated by Ruth Ozeki

A brilliant, unforgettable, and long-awaited novel from bestselling author Ruth Ozeki

“A time being is someone who lives in time, and that means you, and me, and every one of us who is, or was, or ever will be.”

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.

Full of Ozeki’s signature humor and deeply engaged with the relationship between writer and reader, past and present, fact and fiction, quantum physics, history, and myth, A Tale for the Time Being is a brilliantly inventive, beguiling story of our shared humanity and the search for home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Audio
• Release date: Mar 12, 2013
• ISBN: 9781101605301

Reviews for A Tale for the Time Being

[xenu01 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In defense of Ruth.

Depression kind of looks whiny and useless and goddd why won't you just fix the broken things instead of being sad all the time.

So that is all I want to say. I feel like everything else has already been said.

[crabbyabbe · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It took me more than two months to finish this. So deep and heart-wrenching in parts, I couldn't fly through it. Nao, the Japanese girl who is the main narrator of her own diary, is a character who will stay with me. I just felt at times that the author tried to do too much, and I could have stayed with Nao and her story more than Ruth's, the woman who finds her diary. The writing itself was magnificent.

[word.owl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a long book for what it was, and I think a lot of detail could have been pared down. That said, I felt like it was written for me.

It's about a writer who seems to be a direct stand-in for the author, living on an island in western Canada. She finds the diary of a Japanese-American teenager, Nao Yasutani, washed up on the beach. As she reads it, she becomes increasingly alarmed for the safety of the girl and her family.

The "time being" of the title seems to mean "for now," but also "for us." The author refers to people as "time beings"--those who have to deal with the flow of time--throughout the book. So it's a tale for the time BEING as well as a tale for the TIME being.

What I enjoyed most about this is that the author has obviously been to Japan and had some experience with the Japanese language. There are copious footnotes that the "Ruth" of the novel makes on Nao's diary about words, phrases, and culture.

Nao's diary itself is written in a gutted hardcover copy of À la recherche du temps perdu by Proust. Nao's great uncle Haruki studied French during college before being forced to become a kamikaze pilot.

Since I lived in Japan, studied French, and am interested in World War II, these elements particularly appealed to me.

The bullying in the novel was horrible. I was also bullied and could identify with that, but my bullying only barely became physical. I can't imagine being snipped at with little scissors by your classmates.

The novel also has an overarching theme of how we deal with time and death, something that I've struggled with for a long time and have found that a lot of people don't like to talk about. So to have an author who wrote a whole novel exploring it shows me that it's something everyone thinks about. The book is a little morbid in that way, but it also made me feel less alone.

I was fascinated, and sad, to know that a lot of kamikaze pilots really didn't want to die. A lot of them were forced into it in one way or another. If they chose not to do it, they could be shot by their comrades while trying to run away, or have the pensions to their families decreased. Or, sometimes their refusal was just ignored. All the time, they were escorted to their final flights. A lot of them were students, formerly exempt from military service but conscripted as a desperate act by a losing government. I wonder if that was true for all the years of the war, though? Hmm.

Much of the book is also about Nao's great grandmother, Jiko, a Zen Buddhist nun. Interesting insights from her, and particularly poignant to me since my grandma just died this year.

Toward the end, the book dove into more of a magical realism style, which was a little jarring since it didn't start that way, but it was cool. Since it was a bestseller I guess that means it was accessible to a lot of people, but among my library co-workers I'm the only one who really liked it so far. That's a bummer, because it had so many parallels and intricacies and little interesting connections to delve into. It must take a certain kind of reader to appreciate it.

[kwagnerroberts · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It got a little boring when the letters were read (I listened to this book), but overall I was entranced!

[romonko · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Have you ever had a book that seems to be calling to you from your nightstand or your book shelf? It sounds silly, but that is what this book has been doing to me. I would notice it there sometimes, and I would pick it up and look at it, and even open the pages, but I would put it back because I didn't think the time was right, or that I was in the right frame of mind to read it. Well I finally picked it up again, and this time decided to read it. It would turn out to be one of the last books that I would read this year, but it would be the best. I have read some fabulous books this year, so I don't say this lightly. Ruth Ozeki seemed to have written this book for me at this my time of life. It is a book that actually made me examine and reevaluate my life. It made me appreciate and be thankful for the life that i have had. It made me think about why things in the world have happened the way they have. When a barnacle-covered "Hello-Kitty" lunchbox washes up on shore on a remote island just off the coast of British Columbia, it changes Ruth's life. Ruth and her husband Oliver are living a survivalist lifestyle. Ruth is an author and Oliver a very talented botanist. When Ruth finds a diary in the lunchbox written in English by a young Japanese girl named Nao Yasutani, she does not realize how reading this diary will forever change her life, and change her thoughts about what has been and is still happening in the world. Reading Nao's story is heartbreaking, but it is also totally engaging. Ozeki does not spare her readers with coloured-over descriptions of horrific happenings. The descriptions are graphic and totally gripping, and they pull the reader in, kicking and screaming, to her fictional world. The book restored my faith in human nature, and made me realize that no matter how bad things may appear, faith, love, family and human compassion, can make things better, and change our beliefs and our opinions, and maybe even change the world a little too. This is a lot for one novel to accomplish, but this one does all of this, as well as tell a great story about a brave 16-year old Japanese girl. and a 30 something Canadian writer who meet through the pages of a diary.

[jscape2000 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A contender for book of the year for me. Sci-fi bordering on magical realism slowly seeps into the book, until it explodes and creates a narrative as worth of manga as print.

[quondame · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Basically a two timeline book with a teenage journal writer in 2001 Tokyo and her reader on a remote western Canadian island. Both are removed from places they thrived in and having difficulty moving ahead. The book takes a long time to really get going but somewhere about 2/3 of the way through it gets strangely and wonderfully entangling.

[kalliegrace · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A time being - one who lives within the bounds of time.
What a ride, this slowly sweeps you in and moves you through the lives of two people, a young girl and a woman reading the girl's diary that was swept out to sea. There are so many serious topics involved here, suicide, bullying, sexual assault, that it does get pretty heavy. The writing is fantastic though, very clever, funny, and pleasant. I loved this, and will look for more by this author.

[mykl8s · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Twice-read, there is still more I want to learn about Ozeki's stories in this novel that I want to read again.

[burritapal · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This work is an inspiration, beginning to end. It comforts and agitates, at the same time. It came to me in a timely manner, because I am lately struggling not to hate: according to Zen, you hurt your karma even by thinking bad thoughts. I have a lot of bad thoughts, mostly of revenge: against a person who lost$10K and, afraid she would lose her rich husband if he found out, let him assume I stole it while working for their business; against people who refuse to see the face that had a family and community, on their plate. These are just thoughts: I never acted on them because I'm a civilized human. Ruth Ozeki, a Zen Buddhist priest, helped me realize that I was hurting myself by just imagining this revenge.

Memorable moments of the book: learning about ocean gyres; learning about what suicide means in Japanese culture (it's not shameful, like it is here--this is comforting to me because my older sister committed suicide by jumping off a roof); Nick Drake and his song "Day is Done"; the prayer you give to the toilet you take a dump in; (p.180) "I believe That in the deepest places in their hearts, People are violent and take pleasure in hurting each other"; instructions on zazen; the World Rectifying Catfish; supapawa--(I believe my superpower is being Spanish English bilingual, which allows me to help people with my understanding/privilege of white culture).

One last word: ReadThisBook.

[ibkennedy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wonderful story

[sriddell_8 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Ruth, an author in Canada, finds a Hello Kitty lunch box washed up on the beach. The lunch box seems to be debris from the Japanese Tsunami and contains letters, a diary, and an old watch.

Ruth feels an intense connection to the author of the diary - a young girl named Nao (pronounced Now).

The book covers so many themes ranging from WWII Kamakazi pilots, the dot com bubble, 9/11, suicide and bullying, religion, philosophy, quantum physics, history, personal responsibility, conscience. But the one overriding theme is that each of us has both our own unique story, and also a place in everyone else's story.

[mercef_9 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Did not finish

[dreesie-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Mar 22 reread (audio, with Ozeki narrating)
I loved Ozeki's The Book of Form and Emptiness, so decided ot give this another try.
I liked it better, but meh still not for me. I did not enjoy the kamikaze pilot storyline (I am not a fan of war stories in general), and I really REALLY did not enjoy the quantum physics/Shrodinger's cat lecture at the end. I enjoy books with odd possible time-travel-ish things (I have a favorite but will not mention it here, because that would be a spoiler), but I do not want to hear the theory behind it. I want a story, not physics and math. (less)

[nbornstein-345883 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Unexpected magic realism

I'm not really sure what I expected, my only previous exposure to the author's work having been her film "Halving the Bones" over 20 years ago. But I was certainly not disappointed by this book.

[bookconcierge · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Book on CD read by the author


This is Ozeki’s most widely-read work (if the Goodreads ratings are any indication). It was nominated for both the Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and it won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

The novel is told in a dual timeframe with two distinct narrative arcs. We have Ruth, who is an author living on a remote island off the coast of British Columbia in about 2013; and we have Nao, a US-born Japanese student living in Tokyo some 8-10 years earlier. What brings them together is Nao’s diary / journal, which Ruth discovers on the beach near her cottage, along with other items a young teen might accumulate, all preserved in a plastic bag inside a Hello Kitty lunchbox.

I don’t think I’ve ever read anything quite like this. Yes, I’ve read other books with multiple narrators and with multiple time lines. But there is an ethereal quality to Ozeki’s novel that I can’t remember ever encountering. I felt transported and immersed in these characters’ lives.

Not that I always wanted to be there. Nao’s story is particularly distressing with the bullying she endures, her family’s disastrous financial situation and her father’s deep depression. But, like Nao, I find some solace in the time spent with her grandmother – a bald, Buddhist nun living a life of quiet contemplation.

The audio edition is read by Ozeki, herself. I can’t imagine anyone else doing a better job of it. Clearly this is a very personal sort of story for her to tell. Others have complained about her droning voice in certain segments, but I found this effective when used for these sections of the book (although, yes, I also disliked the voice).

[castlelass · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ruth, an author, finds a Hello Kitty lunch box washed ashore. It is in a sealed bag that contains two diaries, a packet of letters, and an antique watch. She reads the diaries, one of which was written by Nao, a sixteen-year-old Japanese girl, a decade ago. The other diary and letters were written by Nao’s great-uncle, a WWII kamikaze pilot. Nao writes of her Buddhist nun great-grandmother, Jiko, and of her own plans to die by suicide when she completes the story. Ruth is troubled by Nao’s diary and becomes preoccupied with finding out whether or not she is still alive.

The narrative combines elements of Zen Buddhism, Japanese culture, environmentalism, and natural phenomena. The plot is intricate. The tsunami of 2011 is featured prominently. The book also explores suicidal ideation, bullying, unreliable parenting, and loneliness. It regularly refers to the writings of Marcel Proust. The character’s name, Nao (pronounced Now in English), is no coincidence. There are many discussions of the concepts surrounding time. Even Schrödinger's cat makes an appearance (so to speak).

This book considers humans to be time-beings, which is true, actually, but I never thought of a life in quite that way. I particularly enjoyed the author’s portrayal of the continuity in generations past and present. It took a while for the pieces of this story to gel for me, but once they did, I was enthralled.

[katyefk · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Difficult to read and feel empathy for the characters, except for the grandmother nun. She was inspiring. If you have something better to do, do it to spend your time being happy.

[reader1009-863136 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Man Booker prize (non-American fic) long-listed, 2013. I fully expected to dislike this book (not another teen being bullied to the point of suicide! I mean, it's good to tell these stories but I'm not in the mood to be depressed) but found it oddly compelling. Like the main character, I had to keep reading, I had to find out what happens to Naoko. It is also helpful if you enjoy:
* footnotes!
* Japanese culture
* learning about ocean ecology and other similar topics
* quantum mechanics (but just a little, don't worry it's not too overwhelming)

[the_literary_jedi · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I couldn't dig into this story. Perhaps I will try it again later.

[hccpsk · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

First, we meet Nao — a teenager in Tokyo struggling with her identity after moving back to Japan from America. She began a journal that we read in the first person where she talks about her parents, her difficulties, and her grandmother, Jiko, a Buddhist nun. Then, we meet Ruth, who finds Nao’s journal washed up on the beach with some letters and other memorabilia in a Hello, Kitty lunchbox. Facing some struggles of her own, Ruth becomes obsessed with Nao, and finding out who she is and what happened to her. Quickly it becomes clear that Ruth bears a shocking resemblance to the author of A Tale For the Time Being, Ruth Ozeki, as she plays with the idea of time and reality throughout the novel. This is a strange book, with lots of Japanese references and language (lots of footnotes that do not work well in Kindle!) that examines self, identity, belonging, and (of course) time. An interesting coming of age story entwined with a coming of middle-age story.

[siok-76276 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really like this! But didn't give it 5-star because Ruth's story can be a bit draggy and the ending lecture about quantum physics is quite mind-boggling. I don't know what's that about. Nao's story itself is worth the read. Ozeki gets the tone exactly right, making you believe in the narrative of a 16-year-old. Nao writes about a tale that happens at a particular time (time being) but the tale doesn't just fade away, it survives. Ruth picks it up and is immersed in it, likewise we too (or at least I). While this gives some permanence to transient things, what's more important is what happens at that point in time. You can't live the same moment twice, so make full use of it. Nao's uncle knew he would die but he was learning up till his death. Likewise, Nao's great-grandma was also learning in her old, old age. Finally, she teaches Nao and her father to live. And they did.

[tonifgmamtc · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This book just didn't work for me. It's written well, but it just isn't my kind of story. It made me feel depressed.

[paul_s-289480 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Quirky at first but ultimately a pretentious snore. Simply because the book is about suicide and child prostitution doesn't make it profound. I also find the message advocating not standing up for yourself beyond passive resistance disturbing.

[drfuriosa · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I must confess to being disappointed and feeling like I had been given a bait-and-switch. If I am going to be sent to a metaphysical multi-verse realm, I'd kind of like to know. I was not prepared for the direction the story would take, and the ending left me unsatisfied. I think Ruth Ozeki is a talented writer, but this just was not my cuppa tea.

[booklove2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The first Ruth Ozeki I've read.  The flowiness of the prose is notable - maybe because much of it is written in the style of a teenager.  The remainder is Ruth Ozeki who seems to throw her and her family in there as characters, which is certainly interesting.  But I also wonder why she didn't just make up another character... I also love the Japanese culture thrown in -- it's lovely to see Kanji in an English book, even if I need the translations.  The book is filled with sadness, but it's worth it.  One regret: not actually getting the story of Nao's grandmother, which was sure to be interesting.  If you like this one, another odd book that hinges on a speculative science (and everything and the kitchen sink, in a great way)  is Dexter Palmer's 'Version Control'.  Both get very sciencey at the end there.

[technodiabla · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was a real page turner-- I finished the last 200 pages in the car even though I get motion sick because I couldn't put it down. I loved Nao's voice and story. She was very believable as a 16 year old girl. Ruth I found a little pathetic and Oliver even more so. Both the settings (BC and Japan) were interesting and the writer provided some perceptive insights into the difference in our cultures. The suicide angle was depressing but interesting.

I didn't love the ending. The quantum stuff seemed unnecessary and didn't fit with the rest of the novel and it was ridiculous to have Oliver "lecture on it" to the reader. But at least Nao's story had a satisfactory ending. Overall a great read.

[ken5me5old5mate · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A Tale For The Time Being by Ruth Ozeki Yet another alternating chapter narrative!

I find Japanese books intriguing, their culture is so different to ours that it is a bit like entering another world. By culture I mean their social structure and interactions, the invisible stuff. Not what kind of noodles they eat.

Simply put this is a western woman reading a Japanese school girl's diary, hence the two voices. The thing is that the western woman comes across as whiny and self-obsessed and detracts from the overall experience of this book. I'd go further and say that she is not needed at all, she doesn't contrast to the Japanese voice, if anything she degrades it. I've given it 3.5 stars because of this.

The Japanese bit is pretty good but you have to suspend disbelief a bit, but then you have to anyway. To be more specific the Japanese bit is kinda stereotypical but not enough to bring it all down. An story of loss and redemption at heart and worth a read

[shannonrose4 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I just got to attend an event at Rackham tonight where I got to hear Ozeki speak; it was truly an outstanding event! Wonderful to hear the story of the crafting of this novel.
I am about 90 pages in at this point and loving it, but after tonight's event and meeting the author, I am even more excited to read this novel. Loved hand-selling this book before, and now I want to share this book with everyone!
So thankful that I got to share time with the author and recommend one my favorite titles about time with her: The Sense Of An Ending!
Wow. Just finished the book and I loved it.

[akblanchard_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It took me a long time to read A Tale for the Time Being, and that's mostly because there were days when I couldn't bring myself to pick it up. The triggering (for me at least) story of a badly bullied, suicidal Japanese girl Naoko is interspersed with the rather less vivid story of an author named Ruth who finds the girl's diary after it washes ashore on a Canadian island. The book has much to say about the relationship between writers and readers, and, thanks to Ruth’s know-it-all husband, there is also a lot about environmental disasters and quantum physics. A good book, perhaps even a great book, but not at all an easy read.