Ozeki 's 2013 novel , '' A Tale for the Time Being '' ( Viking Penguin ) tells the story of a mysterious diary written by a troubled schoolgirl in Tokyo that 's washed ashore on the Pacific Northwest coast of Canada in the wake of the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami . The diary is discovered by a novelist named Ruth , who becomes obsessed with discovering the girl 's fate . Junot Diaz called this novel Ozeki 's " absolute best — bewitching , intelligent , hilarious , and heartbreaking , often on the same page . " The novel was awarded the 2013 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction , and named the first recipient of the 2015 Yasnaya Polyana Literary Award ( founded by the Leo Tolstoy Museum & Estate and Samsung Electronics ) for the Best Foreign Novel of the 21st century . The book has received several other national and international awards , and has been published in over thirty countries
2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
Ruth Ozeki