Convenience Store Woman /
Sayaka Murata
- London Portobello Books 2018
- 163 p.
Keiko has never really fitted in. At school and university people find her odd and her family worries she'll never be normal. To appease them, keiko takes a job at a newly opened convenience store. Here, she finds peace and purpose in the simple, daily tasks and routine interactions. She is, she comes to understand, happiest as a convenience store worker. But in keiko's social circle it just won't do for an unmarried woman to spend all her time stacking shelves and re-ordering green tea. As pressure mounts on keiko to find either a new job or worse, a husband, she is forced to take desperate action A best-seller in japan and the winner of the prestigious Akutagawa prize, convenience store woman marks the English-language debut of a writer who has been hailed as the most exciting voice of her generation.