Paperback
A diary floats across the ocean, connecting two lives through loss.

A Tale for the Time Being

$24.50

  • Paperback

    432 pages

  • Release Date

    30 October 2017

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Summary

A beautifully interwoven novel about magic and loss and the incomprehensible threads that connect our lives.

Nao lives in Tokyo. She is sixteen, and has decided to write a diary before she kills herself. She has plenty of material - school bullies, depressed parents - but she particularly wants to chronicle the life of her great-grandmother, Jiko, a Buddhist nun. Eventually, Nao thinks, her diary will find its reader.

Ruth lives with her husband on the Pacific coast of Canada.…

Book Details

ISBN-13:9781925498950
ISBN-10:1925498956
Author:Ruth Ozeki
Publisher:Text Publishing
Imprint:The Text Publishing Company
Format:Paperback
Number of Pages:432
Release Date:30 October 2017
Weight:286g
Dimensions:33mm x 131mm x 198mm
A-Format
B-Format
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki - ISBN: 9781925498950
131 × 198 mm
C-Format
A4
mm / in
What They're Saying

Critics Review

‘An engaging, bitter-sweet work.’

‘A beautifully interwoven novel about magic and loss and the incomprehensible threads that connect our lives. I loved it.’ – Elizabeth Gilbert
‘Deep and gorgeous and wise. A completely satisfying, continually surprising, wholly remarkable achievement.’ – Karen Joy Fowler
‘Ozeki is one of my favorite novelists and here she is at her absolute best—bewitching, intelligent, hilarious, and heartbreaking, often on the same page.’ – Junot Diaz
‘Ruth Ozeki beautifully renders not only the devastation of the collision between man and the natural world, but also its often miraculous results. She is a deeply intelligent and humane writer who offers her insight with a grace that beguiles. I truly love this novel.’ – Alice Sebold
‘Ingenious and touching…I read it with great pleasure.’ – Philip Pullman
‘Delightful…fresh and immediate.’ * New York Times Book Review *
‘A huge, compassionate and cleverly wrought novel.’ * Times Literary Supplement *
‘A masterpiece, pure and simple.’ * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) *
‘Masterfully woven…a spellbinding tale.’ * O, The Oprah Magazine *
‘A Tale for The Time Being is many things: literary thriller, cross-cultural meditation and postmodern game. Ozeki’s subtlety and craft make these into a convincing whole.’ * Sydney Morning Herald *
‘One of those exquisitely rare books in which you’re still wondering what else it holds until the very last page.’ * Sun Herald *
‘A Tale for the Time Being achieves an impressive balancing act: it’s a book that is profound but never earnest.’ * Australian *
‘An engaging, bitter-sweet work.’ * Weekend Herald (NZ) *
‘Clever on many levels but also immensely readable.’ * Herald on Sunday (NZ) *

About The Author

Ruth Ozeki

  • Ruth Ozeki was born and raised in Connecticut to an American father and a Japanese mother.
  • She is a novelist, filmmaker, and Zen Buddhist priest.
  • Her books have received international acclaim.
  • Her first two novels, My Year of Meats (1998) and All Over Creation (2003), have been translated into eleven languages and published in fourteen countries.
  • Her third novel, A Tale for the Time Being (2013), won the LA Times Book Prize, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and has been published in over thirty countries.

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