A Tale for the Time Being

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. A few months after the 2010 tsunami, she finds a Hello Kitty lunchbox washed up on the shore. It contains a diary.

This is the simple story of a girl, her great grandmother and the novelist who becomes enthralled with their tale. And it is much much more.

Winner, LA Times Book Prize for Fiction, United States, 2013
Winner, Independent Bookseller Week, Book of the Year, United Kingdom, 2013
Winner, Medici Book Club Prize, United States, 2014
Winner, Yasnaya Polyana Literary Award for the Best Foreign Novel, Russian Federation, 2015
Shortlisted, National Book Critics Circle Awards, United States, 2013
Shortlisted, Man Booker Prize, 2013
Shortlisted, American Booksellers Assocation (ABA) Indies Choice Award for Fiction, United States, 2014
Longlisted, PEN Open Book Award, United States, 2014
Longlisted, International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, Ireland, 2015