Convenience Store Woman

Keiko has always been strange, and only at university, by mimicking customers and co-workers at a newly opened convenience store and heeding her sister's tips, did she learn to pass as ordinary. Eighteen years on she is still behind that counter, on her eighth manager, eating shop food daily and working the till in her sleep; the store's rules make her a working part of society. Old classmates, now with careers and children, are puzzled by her. Then Shiraha, an ex-employee who claims he only took the job to get married and was sacked for following a customer, turns up again, and the pair start an odd domestic arrangement that everyone else mistakes for love.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

151 pages in the original

Genres

Satire (assigned by AI)

Set in

Japan

First published

2016 by Bungeishunju

Author's age

37 when first published

ISBN

9784163906188 (original)

9780802128256 (Grove Press, United States)

9781846276835 (Granta Books, United Kingdom)

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Wikidata