Within the pages of this book lies the diary of a girl called Nao. Riding the waves of a tsunami, it is making its way across the ocean. It will change the life of the person who finds it.

It might change yours, too.

================================

I am hosting this book in Sternschnuppe28's Booker Prize 2013 Roundabout. I've ordered the book back in November from the Cărtureşti library in Bucharest, but it was accidentally delivered to my hometown address. The book is now with me (that is to say, I'm now back home and picked it up). It is almost ready to start its journey - I will post it next week, when I'm back in Bucharest, and will read it myself in the meantime.

It's hard to let go of this book. The writing is intense and spectacular, the strings it plays are random yet profoundly interwoven. From tsunamis to Schrodinger's cat, from the 2nd World War to zen, from manga to World Trade Center, the book has an incredible ability to connect anything to everything. Thinking of a time being as a being rather than a place in time, getting lost in the magic of words and worlds.

Well, so much for next week. Sorry about that.

This is a Booker Prize 2013 Shortlist book. Initial reading order:

Sternschnuppe28
Sidney1
leamhliom
Lamilla

(please check http://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/20/502579 in case this might have changed. I'll update my list, too, if needed).

Happy Reading!

just received yesterday ... thank you, lamelemon, for sending and your friendly postcard :-)

More about the book here as soon as possible.

I am very sorry - I meant reading and forwarding the book long ago. By now I have not yet read the book - shame on me! So I guess the book had its chance with me and should have more luck with the rest of the reading group. Enjoy reading! ... on its way to Sidney1 now.

Oh, dear, this book is doomed! I received it over a month ago - and forgot all about it! So sorry! Will start reading it very soon - it's the next book on my list.

This is a fascinating read. I’m interested in Japan and the Japanese language, so I found the sprinkling of modern Japanese slang words within Nao’s writing compelling – although the words were explained only once and I would often forget what a word meant when it reappeared many pages later in the novel. All in all, Nao’s accounts, from both physical and mental abuse at school going well beyond mere bullying to sexual experiences with hentai (=perverts), do not enamour the reader with Japan. Instead, it seems rather a sick place. But there is hope in form of Buddhism. Ozeki herself is a Zen Buddhist priest, and she’s certainly making a point here. The book is obviously also autobiographical. The other main narrator of the book is called Ruth, her partner, as in real life, is called Oliver and she lives somewhere in British Columbia. This turns the book into a personal comment on a broad range of subjects: nature, natural catastrophes, the tsunami, death and loss, identity, duty, it’s all in there. I found it captivating, and Nao’s story, entwined with the war experience of her granduncle Haruki #1, felt authentic and touching. I was captivated!
The book is travelling on to leamhliom tomorrow.

Thank you sidney1, I received the book. I have loads of book club books to finish but I hope to get to this in a few weeks.

Please read, enjoy this book and pass it on. Share the love of reading!

Please let me know if you've found this book on www.bookcrossing.com

On the way to the next person on this Booker Prize 2013 Roundabout.

With me now

Sent back to lamelemon as unregistered surface mail

Picked up yesterday from the post office on my way to the airport, and now journaled from Athens :)