In 'A Tale for the Time Being', we discover the deeply interwoven lives of Nao, a teenage girl in Tokyo who confronts her loneliness and the cruelty of her peers by chronicling the life of her Buddhist nun great grandmother, Jiko, and Ruth, a novelist in Canada. When Ruth stumbles upon Nao's diary encased within a Hello Kitty lunchbox—likely debris from the 2011 tsunami—she becomes enthralled by the girl's story. Each diary entry leads Ruth further into Nao's world, bridging time and space, and indelibly changing both of their futures. With elements of humor and a profound exploration of the relationship between writer and reader, the past and the present, and the blurring lines between fact and fiction, Ruth Ozeki's novel delves into an extraordinary narrative that celebrates our shared humanity in the quest for connection and home.