Konbini ningen

By Sayaka Murata

Subjects: Man-woman relationships -- Japan -- Fiction, Part-time employment -- Japan -- Fiction, Convenience stores, Convenience stores -- Japan -- Fiction, Fiction, Single women, Man-woman relationships, Part-time employment, Japanese fiction, Single women -- Japan -- Fiction

Description: Furukura Keiko, 36 and single, lives a quiet life. She never found formal employment, and has been working in a convenience store for 18 years. She's never had a boyfriend. She eats convenience store food every day and can work the register in her sleep; she falls peacefully asleep each night thinking of the store's tidy scenery and the staff's cries of "Welcome!" One day a new male employee, himself looking to get married, tells her that her "convenience store life" is downright embarrassing...but just what is "normal" anyway?