is a novel that follows a troubled adolescent Japanese girl named Nao and a writer living across the world named Ruth. These two characters are connected by a journal Nao had written that was discovered by Japanese-American writer Ruth on an island near the coast of British Columbia months after the tsunami had hit Japan. Ozeki tells the story of Nao’s life by using controversial themes like suicide and using graphic images to best illustrate the life of this troubled teenager. To begin, the story starts off with the main character, Nao, saying she is “a time being.” At first read these words make little sense, but going on through the novel this very phrase exemplifies one of the most important themes the novel preaches, the concept of living in the time being. An example of this theme is shown when Nao thought of ending her life. She said “Making the decision to end my life really helped me lighten up, and suddenly all the stuff Jiko had told me about the time being really kicked into focus. There’s nothing like realizing that you don’t have much time left to stimulate your appreciation for the moments of your life.” Nao began to realize that she doesn’t have that much time on the earth and she now decides to live in the time being and experience things for the first time like the “beauty of the plum and cherry blossoms along the avenues in Ueno Park.” This quote of Nao walking through Ueno park and seeing all the cherry blossoms on the ground made me really understand what living in the time being really is. Living in the time being is not dreading on what happened in the past like how Nao was, but rather focusing in on only the present and noticing the beauty in things you haven’t noticed before. Next, one of the most repeated themes in the book is suicide. Throughout the novel Nao witnesses her own father try and take his own life on two occasions. It isn’t just her father who tries to take his lif