A Tale for the Time Being

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 Díaz
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* 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 * This is one of the most deeply moving and thought-provoking novels I have read in a long time. In precise and luminous prose, Ozeki captures both the sweep and detail of our shared humanity, movingly seamlessly between Nao's story and our own -- Madeline Miller * 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 * A beautifully interwoven novel about magic and loss and the incomprehensible threads that connect our lives. I just finished it, and loved it. -- Elizabeth Gilbert * A Tale for the Time Being is a downright miraculous book that will captivate you from the very first page. Profoundly original, with authentic, touching characters and grand, encompassing themes, Ruth Ozeki proves that truly great stories - like this one - can both deepen our understanding of self and remind us of our shared humanity -- Deborah Harkness author of A Discovery of Witches * There is far too much to say about this remarkable and ambitious book in a few sentences. This is for real and not just another hyped-up blurb. A Tale For the Time Being is a great achievement, and it is the work of a writer at the height of her powers. Ruth Ozeki has not only reinvigorated the novel itself, the form, but she's given us the tried and true, deep and essential pleasure of characters who we love and who matter -- Jane Hamilton author of A Map of the World * A Tale for the Time Being is equal parts mystery and meditation. The mystery is a compulsive, gritty page-turner. The meditation -- on time and memory, on the oceanic movement of history, on impermanence and uncertainty, but also resilience and bravery - is deep and gorgeous and wise. A completely satisfying, continually surprising, wholly remarkable achievement, this is a book to be read and reread -- Karen Joy Fowler author of The Jane Austen Book Club * Funny, heartbreaking, moving and profound... The warmth, compassion, wisdom and insight with which Ozeki pieces all these stories together will have the reader linked in a similarly profound way to this fantastic novel -- Doug Johnstone The Independent 20130309 * Ozeki explores what it means to be human in this moment, right now (Nao). Her novel is saturated with love, ideas and compassion. In short, an absolute treat -- Lucy Atkins The Sunday Times 20130317 * Packed with philosophical asides about time, and is unexpectedly moving -- Kate Saunders The Times 20130309 * A Chinese box of a novel -- Claire Allfree Metro 20130306 * Part fantasy, part mystery, part page-turner -- Sam Baker Harper Bazaar 20130306 * Hooray - Ozeki rides again! -- Barbara Kingsolver On All Over Creation * There are not many novels that can justify the label `extraordinary`, as this one claims to be. Nonetheless, this is extraordinary for several reasons. It grapples with a quite astonishing pantheon of themes. The writing is witty, intelligent and passionate, inching between comment and emotional involvement without once losing its foothold. This is a disturbing, humorous and intelligent book -- Independent On My Year Of Meats * Ozeki joins the constellation of such writers as Barbara Kingsolver, Annie Proulx and Margaret Atwood, bringing her own shrewd and playful humour and kinetic pizzazz to the table -- Chicago Tribune On All Over Creation * Ruth Ozeki's wonderful, intricate novel encompasses both global catastrophe and tine human potentialities... It is enough to say that this is a novel of subtlety and delicacy which is, above all, a celebration of our shared humanity and an affirmation of the myriad possibilities we all carry within us. New Internationalist * A Tale For The Time Being is a wonderful, wonderful book that felt oddly rewarding to read. Spanning continents and time, it waves together Zen, quantum physics and French philosophy into multiple narratives of heartbreak and touching moments of joy Curiosity Killed the Bookworm 20130309 * A sheer work of brilliance More2Read 20130311 * [This] could revolutionise our reading habits -- David Robinson The Scotsman 20130316 * This is a book which will absorb you from the very beginning and which will stay with you long after you have finished reading it Spalding Guardian 20130312
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Ruth Ozeki is an award-winning novelist and filmmaker. She is the author of My Year of Meats (1998) and All Over Creation (2002). Ozeki was born and raised in Connecticut, by an American father and Japanese mother. In June 2010 she was ordained as a Zen Buddhist priest. She divides her time between British Columbia and New York.www.ruthozeki.com
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