“The girl is suicidal. So is her father. The whole diary is a cry for help."

Nao struggles with her life throughout the entirety of the novel. She suffers from start to finish, with brief moments of joy in between as a result of interactions with enlightened beings. This is seen in her relationship with Jiko, but also with Ruth and Haruki. Haruki’s attitudes toward the software company wanting to use his research to build unethical weapons of war mirrors the damage to the Anthropocene caused by humans and the “the capitalist greed and imperialist hubris that motivated it.” (P. 328)

The truth of the origin and the end of Nao’s suffering stems from her thoughts of suicide after experiencing abuse, neglect, and trauma. The final poem that Jiko writes on her deathbed, a tradition among Zen Buddhist masters, is a message to her grandson and great-granddaughter—the single Japanese kanji “to live.” After Jiko’s funeral, Nao’s dad says to her that they must listen to Jiko and do their best to live, rather than turning to suicide as a solution to their problems. Zen Buddhism thus is also the end of Nao’s suffering.

Click here to read more about the Buddhist concept of Enlightened Beings.