A Tale for the Time Being

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, this is a timeless and compassionate novel about what it means to be human.

In the wake of the 2011 tsunami, Ruth discovers a Hello Kitty lunchbox washed up on the shore of her beach home in British Columbia. Within it lies a diary that expresses the hopes, heartbreak and dreams of a young girl desperate for someone to understand her. Each turn of the page pulls Ruth deeper into the mystery of Nao’s life, and forever changes her in a way neither could foresee.

Weaving across continents and decades, A Tale for the Time Being is an extraordinary novel about our shared humanity and the search for home.

“This is one of the most deeply moving and thought-provoking novels I have read in a long time. In precise and luminous prose, Ozeki captures both the sweep and detail of our shared humanity, moving seamlessly between Nao’s story and our own”

MADELINE MILLER

Author Of The Song Of Achilles

“A triumph … Ozeki explores what it means to be human in this moment, right now (Nao). Her novel is saturated with love, ideas and compassion. In short, an absolute treat”

LUCY ATKINS

Sunday Times

”A Tale for the Time Being is a timeless story. Ruth Ozeki beautifully renders not only the devastation of the collision between man and the natural world, but also the often miraculous results of it. She is a deeply intelligent and humane writer who offers her insights with a grace that beguiles. I truly love this novel”

ALICE SEBOLD

“Ingenious and touching, A Tale for the Time Being is also highly readable. And interesting: the contrast of cultures is especially well done”

PHILIP PULLMAN

“A beautifully interwoven novel about magic and loss and the incomprehensible threads that connect our lives. I just finished it, and loved it”

ELIZABETH GILBERT

Author Of Eat, Pray, Love