by Sayaka Murata; translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori
The first of Murata’s novels to be translated into English, the beguiling, delightfully oddball “Convenience Store Woman” was a hit in her native Japan before going on to international acclaim. It tells the story of Keiko Furukura, who has worked at a 24-hour shop in the middle of Tokyo for nearly two decades.
For Keiko, working at her store is a totalizing experience; she expresses no other needs, interests or ambitions. Murata, in adopting her point of view, makes conventional people — not Keiko — seem like the weirdos, defamiliarizing the modern world with acerbic vision. Read our review.
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