Once in a while a perfect book comes along for me - equal parts of charm, humor, intelligence, all mixed together into the perfect blend of a book. This is a book I won't soon forget, but it will go on my very short list of books I'd want to reread.
A TALE FOR THE TIME BEING is about Nao (pronounced Now), a young Japanese girl who was brought up in America, but was forced to move back to Japan when her Dad lost his software job during the dotcom crash. She struggles to adjust in her new school, has no friends, strays, wants to commit suicide. But before she does that she wants to leave one thing behind that she'd be proud of. She decides she wants to tell the tale of her 104 year old grandmother, a Buddhist nun who renounced the world, and lives in a temple as its caretaker, in the remote mountains of Japan.
Ruth, living on a distant island in Canada, finds this tale washed up on the beach - a handwritten book in a Hello Kitty lunch box, wrapped up in layers and layers of plastic. She feels so connected to Nao that even though the book was written a long time ago, she feels like she has to try and see if she can help the young girl.
The book has many layers beyond Ruth, Nao and her grandmother - there's the beautiful island in Canada, quantum physics, Nao's Dad's story, modern Japan, Nao's great uncle who was a WWII soldier, Zen spirituality, all rolled up into one.
Read the book, feel the magic, and the supa-pawa (super-power) of Nao. She's a time being, so is Ruth, and so are we. I cannot recommend the story enough!
Next stop: Library!!
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