Ruth begins to read, discovering this is the diary of a teenage Japanese girl, Nao Yasutani, which she presumes has been swept on to their shores in the drift from the 2011 tsunami. Nao tells how she has decided to kill herself - to drop out of time. But first she will write the story of her own life and that of her great-grandmother, Jiko, for some unknown person in the future who she believes will find the diary.
Nao's sections of the story are amusing and heartbreaking. As they alternate with Ruth's narrative, it becomes clear there are parallels between the pair. Both are struggling, longing for other lives in other places, feeling out of step with those around them.
Nao has been brought up in America but when the dotcom bubble burst her family returned to Japan where they live in a cramped Tokyo apartment, her father depressed and unemployed, Nao bullied with extraordinary cruelty at school, and no hope of anything changing.
A summer spent at a temple near Sendai with the ancient Jiko, a nun and novelist, gives Nao a new perspective. She learns to meditate and discovers her family history, becoming fascinated in particular with Jiko's only son, a suicide bomber in World War II.
As she reads through the diary, Ruth's waking and dreaming lives are increasingly dominated by Nao and her world.
She is convinced she has to help the girl.
But has she already killed herself? Was she a victim of the tsunami? Is she even real?
Internet searches turn up no mention of her, and even a brief reference to Jiko disappears shortly after Ruth chances upon it.
Ozeki is part-Japanese and A Tale For the Time Being is a fascinating account of that country's culture. Her real skill, though, is in blending concept and story so beautifully.
The result is a novel that is clever on many levels but also immensely readable.
