Convenience Store Woman: A Novel

“An exhilaratingly weird and funny Japanese novel about a long-term convenience store employee. Unsettling and totally unpredictable—my copy is now heavily underlined.” —Sally Rooney, The Guardian

Selling over a million copies in Japan and named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, BuzzFeed, and many other publications, Convenience Store Woman is both delightfully strange and oddly heartwarming. Keiko Furukura is thirty-six, and she has been happily working at a Tokyo “Smile Mart” for eighteen years, fitting in by copying her colleagues’ dress and mannerisms, playing the part of a “normal person” excellently—more or less. But her packaged idyll is threatened by mounting pressure to find a husband and a proper career, prompting her to take desperate action to protect her peaceful world. Charming and unforgettable, Convenience Store Woman is an international sensation by a brilliant writer whose work is finally being recognized outside of her native country.

© 2025 Simon & Schuster Audio (Audiobook): 9781668144954

Translators: Ginny Tapley Takemori

Release date

Audiobook: 17 June 2025