Available Formats
Paperback
Published: 3rd June 2019
Paperback
Published: 8th July 2025
Paperback
Published: 5th July 2018
Convenience Store Woman
By (Author) Sayaka Murata
Translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori
Translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori
Granta Books
Granta Books
5th July 2018
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
895.636
Paperback
176
Width 135mm, Height 216mm, Spine 10mm
175g
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.
One of the most celebrated of the new generation of Japanese writers, Sayaka Murata has won not only the prestigious Akutagawa Prize, but the Gunzo, Noma, and Mishima Yukio Prizes as well. Her story, 'A Clean Marriage', was featured in Granta 127 Japan. She is 36-years-old and works part-time in a convenience store. Ginny Tapley Takemori has translated Ryu Murakami, Miyabe Miyuki, Akiyuki Nosaka, and Kyotaro Nishimura, among others. Her translation of Tomiko Inui's The Secret of the Blue Glass was shortlisted for the Marsh Award.