Keiko is trying very hard to be normal. She studies gestures, mimics inflection, composes her face. What she needs is a manual for ordinary living. Instead she finds a job, and in the straight-jacket of the convenience store, she finds a kind of paradise. A reason to live.

“I was shocked by their reaction. As a convenience store worker, I couldn’t believe they were putting gossip about store workers before a promotion in which chicken skewers that usually sold at 130 yen were to be put on sale at the special price of 110 yen. What on earth had happened to the pair of them?” (118)

Keiko becomes perfectly-attuned to the needs of the shop and is proud and relieved to be a well-calibrated cog. But a shop is a young woman’s gig. As Keiko ages, society requires more from her: career, marriage, motherhood…

Sayaka Murata’s uncomplicated storytelling-style is as efficient as a whirl through a corner shop. Convenience Store Woman is a fast read, funny and dark with hints at horror. Keiko is winsome, and Shiraha, the deadbeat villain, made me cringe every time he opened his rotten-toothed mouth.

“For eighteen years, there has always been a manager, even if his appearance keeps changing. Although each is different, taken all together I sometimes have the feeling they are but one single creature.” 41

A highly-enjoyable, unexpected gem. And if head office are reading, please make this woman the manager!

Convenience Store Woman was originally published in 2016 as Konbini ningen and was translated from Japanese to English by Ginny Tapley Takemori.