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A Tale for the Time Being

by Ruth Ozeki
A Tale for the Time Being
A Tale for the Time Being

Cross-cultural odyssey of connection, history, and fate.

If you appreciate stories that weave together different cultures and periods, "A Tale for the Time Being" offers a captivating experience. Ruth Ozeki's novel cleverly bridges the gap between a troubled Japanese teenager's diary and the life of a novelist across the Pacific, playing with elements of time, connection, and mystery in a way that feels both profound and genuinely personal. This book could speak to you on multiple levels - intellectually through its engagement with quantum physics and philosophically through its exploration of shared humanity.

  • Booker Prize Nominee (2013)
  • Sunburst Award for Adult (2014)
  • Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction (2013)
  • PEN Open Book Award Nominee for Longlist (2014)
  • National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee for Fiction (2013)
  • The Kitschies for Red Tentacle (Novel) (2013)
  • Andrew Carnegie Medal Nominee for Fiction (2014)
  • Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Fiction (2013)
  • Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature for Adult Fiction (2013)
  • Metų verstinė knyga Nominee (2016)
Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.

A Tale for the Time Being

by Ruth Ozeki
Condition guide

Book Condition Guide

Books in Like New Condition

This book may contain very minor cosmetic defects, but it is in pristine condition. There should be no yellowing, no foxing, no water damage, and no annotations of any kind on the cover and the pages. For paperbacks, there should not be any crease marks on the spine. This book is good as new — lucky you!

*Books may be missing bundle media (e.g. CD, e-book code), if included.

Books in Very Good Condition

This book has been used, but it is still in a clean condition. There should be no foxing or annotations of any kind on the inner pages, but a sparse amount may be present on the cover, title pages, or outside edges of the book. There should be no water damage of any kind. For paperbacks, there may be light crease marks on the spine.

*Books may be missing bundle media (e.g. CD, e-book code), if included.

Books in Good Condition

We do our best to ensure the quality of our books, but there is no escaping the wear and tear that comes with time. Slight foxing and some annotations may be present on the pages and the cover. There should be no water damage of any kind. For paperbacks, there may be several crease marks on the spine.

*Books may be missing bundle media (e.g. CD, e-book code), if included.

Books in Well Read Condition

This is a well-read book, which means that the previous owner probably really enjoyed it! The cover and pages may include moderate foxing and annotations, but the text is not obscured and still readable. Moderate cosmetic defects and minor water damage may be present on the edges of the book. For paperbacks, there may be multiple crease marks on the spine.

*Books may be missing bundle media (e.g. CD, e-book code), if included.

 

Find out more about our process here.

ISBN: 9780670026630
Author: Ruth Ozeki
Publisher: Viking
Date of Publication: 2013-03-12
Format: Hardcover
Related Collections: Contemporary, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction
Related Topics: Asian Literature, Japanese Literature
Goodreads rating: 4.06
(rated by 127785 readers)

Description

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 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 humour 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.
 

Cross-cultural odyssey of connection, history, and fate.

If you appreciate stories that weave together different cultures and periods, "A Tale for the Time Being" offers a captivating experience. Ruth Ozeki's novel cleverly bridges the gap between a troubled Japanese teenager's diary and the life of a novelist across the Pacific, playing with elements of time, connection, and mystery in a way that feels both profound and genuinely personal. This book could speak to you on multiple levels - intellectually through its engagement with quantum physics and philosophically through its exploration of shared humanity.

  • Booker Prize Nominee (2013)
  • Sunburst Award for Adult (2014)
  • Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction (2013)
  • PEN Open Book Award Nominee for Longlist (2014)
  • National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee for Fiction (2013)
  • The Kitschies for Red Tentacle (Novel) (2013)
  • Andrew Carnegie Medal Nominee for Fiction (2014)
  • Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Fiction (2013)
  • Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature for Adult Fiction (2013)
  • Metų verstinė knyga Nominee (2016)
Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.

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