Nao, and most everyone she knows, are wasting their lives-but Jiko uses every moment wisely.Īs Ruth reads, she’s concerned about Nao, who has implied that she will kill herself. She is overwhelmed by her problems, and she says that she, too, will die after she writes down the life story of her great-grandmother, Jiko, who is a Buddhist nun. He doesn’t succeed, but after the attempt, Nao constantly worries. Haruki feels like a failure, and he attempts suicide. Haruki is unable to find a job in Japan, so the family is forced to live in a tiny, rundown apartment. She feels like a cultural misfit in Japan, and she is severely bullied by her classmates who consider her to be a foreigner. Nao used to live in California but moved back to Japan after her father, Haruki, lost his job. Nao begins her diary by saying that she and her reader are both “time beings,” or impermanent creatures. As Ruth becomes invested in Nao’s story, the novel switches between Nao’s diary and Ruth’s narrative. Inside it, she is surprised to find an old wind-up watch, some letters written in Japanese, and a diary written in English by a 15-year-old girl named Nao from Tokyo. Ruth, a writer who lives on a remote Canadian island, finds a lunch box washed up on the beach. Part III, Chapter 7: Haruki #1’s Secret French Diary.Part II, Chapter 13: Haruki #1’s Letters.
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