“A Tale for the Time-Being” a 2013 novel by the Canadian-Japanese-American writer Ruth Ozeki, concerns Nao, a 16-year-old girl who, living in Tokyo and bullied by her classmates, begins to keep a diary. Many months later, after Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami, a Japanese-American novelist named Ruth finds a freezer bag washed up along the coast of the British Columbian island where she lives. It contains Nao’s diary, along with several other mysterious objects. As the story unfolds in two times and places, the novel expands into themes on the meaning of writing, Buddhism, quantum physics, the interconnectedness of all things and the nature of time.
Ozeki’s work was awarded the LA Times Book Prize and shortlisted for both the National Book Critic’s Circle Award and Britain’s Man Booker Prize. This year it’s been selected by her alma mater, Smith College, to be read and discussed by incoming freshmen.
Ozeki reads from her novel Monday, 7 p.m. in John M. Greene Hall on the Smith College campus.