A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

This is a novel of contrasting two's: two stories, two cultures, two diaries, two belief systems, two views of time, two participants in the act of storytelling--the writer and the reader. And it turns out that the contrast may also be a sameness.

One story told is that of Nao, a Japanese girl who has grown up in the United States before returning to Japan, where she encounters the contrasting cultures of modern Japanese youth and of traditional Japanese Buddhist belief. Her diary is found in a waterproof packet (along with a watch, another diary, and some letters), washed up on the shore of a remote island in the Pacific Northwest. The finder is Ruth, an American of Japanese heritage, whose story as a stalled writer is also told.

This is an absorbing mystery novel, with characters who seem real, but it is also a meditation on the nature of time and identity and many other ponderous matters. The magical realism which enters late in the story can be viewed either as affirming Buddhist beliefs or theories of quantum physics, but quite possibly both are the same.

I am making this novel sound much more complicated than it really reads. It is one that can be enjoyed on more than one level, and that makes it hard to describe. It is a book that most all would enjoy reading.

Ozeki was a finalist for England's Man Booker Prize for this novel, and she has also been shortlisted for America's National Book Critic's Circle Award (winner announced in February). Since she holds dual American-Canadian citizenship, she is also eligible for the Pulitzer, for which she is a strong contender. I hope she wins.