A revelatory treatise from the Booker-shortlisted author of A Tale for the Time Being about how her face has shaped and been shaped by her life.

What did your face look like before your parents were born? Who are you? What is your true self?

These are the questions in Ruth Ozeki's mind as she challenges herself to spend three hours gazing into her own reflection, recording every thought and detail.

What follows are a lifetime's worth of meditations on race, ageing, family, death, the body, self-doubt and, finally, acceptance. In this profound encounter with memory and the mirror, Ozeki weaves together personal history, professional experience, Zen philosophy, Japanese culture and more to paint a rich, intimate and utterly unique portrait of a life as told through a face.