"Self-discovery and the transformative power of books and book recommendations are at the heart of this rich, funny, moving memoir that exudes all the style of a finely-crafted novel."
What a wondrous work. A memoir that reads like a remarkable novel, Nanako Hanada’s The Bookshop Woman is a beautiful, funny ode to transforming your life — and the lives of others — through throwing oneself into the big, wide world, and through making exactly the right book recommendations at exactly the right time.
“My life is so lacking…I feel like I want to see things I’ve never seen before. To put myself out there, become a new me, a happy me.” So Nanako asserts near the opening of The Bookshop Woman. Recently separated from her husband, she’s realised she has few friends, and little life beyond working in Tokyo’s Village Vanguard bookshop.
Then, after stumbling upon the PerfectStrangers meet-up site, Nanako resolves to take control of her life and meet new people through creating a profile as a quirky “sexy bookseller” offering personalised book recommendations to the folks she meets through the site.
As she encounters dozens of strangers, Nanako hits on truisms that will strike a chord with all of us who love books and the satisfaction that comes of making the perfect match between books we love and people we know: “you couldn’t recommend a book to someone if you didn’t really know them, not really. And you couldn’t recommend a book if you didn’t know it well enough yourself. And moreover, you couldn’t recommend a book without good reason. You had to want that person to read it because you’d thought about what that specific book meant to them.”
Perfectly crafted, emotionally engaging, and radiant with hope and humour, The Bookshop Woman is an absolute joy. A book to heartily recommend to those who feel lost, and those who might benefit from realising how much books can enrich one's life.
| Primary Genre | Biographies & Autobiographies |
| Recommendations: |
I'm the manager of a very unusual bookshop. I have access to over ten thousand books, and I'll recommend the perfect one for you.
80,000 COPIES SOLD IN JAPAN
If Convenience Store Woman were real and set in a small bookshop
This is a love story. A love story about books.
Nanako Hanada's life has hit rock bottom. She's separated from her husband, living between 4-hour capsule hostels and pokey internet cafés in Tokyo. Work is going no better, and sales at her eccentric bookstore are dwindling.
That's when Nanako downloads an app called PerfectStrangers which offers users 30 minutes with someone they'll never see again. Styling herself as TheSexyBookseller, she recommends her matches 'the book that will change their life.' In the ensuing year, Nanako meets hundreds of strangers - and some of them want more than just a book...
Swinging open the door to a secret side of Tokyo, The Bookshop Woman is a true story about the beauty of diving into a book and resurfacing on the last page, ready to breathe freely.
'An irresistible treat for all bibliophiles' WATERSTONES
'Very beautiful, very honest and very good' ? ? ? ? ?
'If you like books, you'll love this one' ? ? ? ? ?
'I'm all for books that lead you to more books' ? ? ? ? ?
The Bookshop Woman features in the following genres: Biographies & Autobiographies, Biography, Literature and Literary studies, Recommendations, Star Books
The Bookshop Woman is available in Paperback, Hardback
The Bookshop Woman was written by Nanako Hanada and published by Brazen an imprint of Octopus
The Bookshop Woman has 224 pages
£9.89
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