Ruth, the character, has been mired in a 10-year project to write a memoir about caring for her mother as she suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. Both are of Japanese descent, and know a lot about the culture and history of Japan. From the author bio, I find that Ruth Ozeki, like Ruth of the novel, lived in New York City and on a remote island in Canada. I discover from the acknowledgments that both have husbands named Oliver, and from the dedication that they share a mother named Masako. In the meantime, I sift through whatever clues I can to find out about Ruth Ozeki, the author, who deliberately blurs the line between herself and her character. Ruth begins to search the Internet to find proof of Nao’s existence. Both she and her father, who is deeply ashamed that he cannot find work in Japan, plan to kill themselves. Nao writes, “In my heart, I’m American, and I believe I have a free will and can take charge of my own destiny,” which makes her a perfect target for vicious bullying by her classmates. To get back to the Ruth of the novel, she is immediately drawn into the life of Naoko Yasutani, a 16-year-old who lives in Tokyo, where she and her parents moved when her computer-programmer father lost his job in Silicon Valley.

How did she know just what resonated with me? So it was, as well, with me as I read Ruth Ozeki’s novel, A Tale for the Time Being. So it was with Ruth, a writer who lives on a remote island in Desolation Sound, British Columbia, when she starts to read a diary she found washed up on the beach in a Hello Kitty lunchbox that also contained a packet of letters and a watch.

Sometimes, very rarely, as you read a book, you get an eerie feeling that it was written just for you.

Ruth a tale for the time being