What’s it like to be a woman who has no desire to marry or have children and is perfectly happy working in a Japanese konbini, a convenience store? 36-year-old Keiko is getting a lot of pressure from family and friends to find a husband. But Keiko is socially awkward, not prone to small talk. She finds comfort in her routine work and the store’s corporate manual, which tells her when and how to smile at humans and what to say to them to appear normal: “As long as you wear the skin of what’s considered an ordinary person and follow the manual, you won’t be driven out of the village or treated as a burden.” Continually struggling to avoid “otherness,” Keiko reaches a crossroad: must society’s definition of happiness be the same as hers? You’ll be rooting for Keiko to say “no” to societal expectations, as I was.
'A gem of a book. Quirky, deadpan, poignant and quietly profound' Ruth Ozeki
The unexpected international bestseller.
Meet Keiko. She's 36 years old, has never had a boyfriend, and she's been working in the same supermarket for eighteen years.
Keiko's family wishes she'd get a proper job. Her friends wonder why she won't get married.
But Keiko knows what makes her happy, and she's not going to let anyone come between her and her convenience store...
A cult hit around the world, Convenience Store Woman is both a feminist rallying cry and a must-read oddball comedy.
'Exhilaratingly weird and funny... Unsettling and totally unpredictable - my copy is now heavily underlined' Sally Rooney
'Darkly comic' Observer
'[A] short, deadpan gem... A true original' Daily Mail
'What a weird and wonderful and deeply satisfying book this is. Sayaka Murata is an utterly unique and revolutionary voice. I tore through it with great delight' Jami Attenberg
