A Tale for the Time Being

De: Ruth Ozeki

Narrado por: Ruth Ozeki

Winner: The Kitschies - Red Tentacle novel award 2013

"Hi! My name is Nao, and I am a time being. Do you know what a time being is? Well, if you give me a moment, I will tell you."

Ruth discovers a Hello Kitty lunchbox washed up on the shore of her beach home. Within it lies a diary that expresses the hopes and dreams of a young girl. She suspects it might have arrived on a drift of debris from the 2011 tsunami. With every turn of the page, she is sucked deeper into an enchanting mystery. In a small cafe in Tokyo, 16-year-old Nao Yasutani is navigating the challenges thrown up by modern life. In the face of cyber-bullying, the mysteries of a 104-year-old Buddhist nun and great-grandmother, and the joy and heartbreak of family, Nao is trying to find her own place - and voice - through a diary she hopes will find a reader and friend who finally understands her.

Weaving across continents and decades, and exploring the relationship between reader and writer, fact and fiction, A Tale for the Time Being is an extraordinary novel about our shared humanity and the search for home.

©2013 Ruth Ozeki (P)2013 Canongate Books Ltd

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Bewitching, intelligent, and heartbreaking... Nao is an inspired narrator and her quest to tell her great grandmother's story, to connect with her past and with the larger world, is both aching and true. Ozeki is one of my favorite novelists and here she is at her absolute best." (Junot Diaz)

" 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)

Ozeki reads wonderfully: Author-narrator-hero Ruth

I have read this book in print and thought I would give the audio version a listen rather than re-read it. The book is so richly layered and is not just your run-of-the-mill work of fiction. The audio version was so much better than I could have anticipated, and provides even more layers to the novel. Ozeki does well in characterizing the voices of each person in the text, and her intonation and emphasis provided some interesting insights to the work I hadn't picked up by reading in print. You cannot grasp this book in one reading, and the research Ozeki put into this book is very dense. It is subtle enough for those who wish to skip over it can do, but for those readers who wish to dig deeper provide a welcome treasure trove of history, environmental, culture and textual depth. I will listen to it again in the future.

Compelling story

What made the experience of listening to A Tale for the Time Being the most enjoyable?

Beautifully read book which stays with you. The story is different and compelling.

What does Ruth Ozeki bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Her accent.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

Six stars

Beautiful, precious book. A real and brave story but so gemlike, shining with wisdom and humility. Amid the mingled stories of two women, a teenage girl writing about her life being bullied at school in her diary and and middle-aged ex-New Yorker suffering writer's block, are so many ideas and themes: age, fate, Japanese Zazen practice, suicide, war, quantum physics, and honesty ... All carried along. beautifully in the powerful and authentic voices of the young woman and her older reader.
The author's reading voice is mesmerising.
You'll love this story. Like all beautiful things, it is an endless surprise.

Give this a chance and you're in for a treat.

When I first heard about this book, I wasn't convinced. A diary of a Japanese schoolgirl washes up on a beach and a middle-aged author interweaves it with her own life on a Canadian Island? It did not sound like my thing.

I'm so glad I didn't listen to my first reaction and gave this book a try. Listening to this book is a real experience. I knew I was hooked when it was 3am and I was still lying in bed in the dark, unable to press pause. There is nothing maudlin or predictable about this story, and there are no dull characters who you feel like you just have to get past to get to the ones you like. There is terror, tragedy, history, family and quite a lot of humour in this book. No wonder it's been long listed for the Booker.

And the narration fro the author is spectacular. After listening, i can't imagine how they could have got anyone else to narrate this unique and wonderful book.

Give it a chance, you won't regret it.

One of the best books ever

This is the first review that I've felt compelled to write. If you listen to one book this year - make it this one!

I am amazed that this book does not have hundreds of reviews of praise. I kept thinking that the reader seemed to have such a deep insight into the characters - it was only when I listened to part 3 did I realise that it was read by Ruth Ozeki herself. It definitely adds another layer to experience.

I loved her Year of Meat - this book is even better. As before Ruth Ozeki combines fact with fiction making it more than simply a story. Listen to this book - or read this book. Or even better do both - you won't be disappointed.