Join us

Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Newsletter

Hiromi Kawakami

The Nakano Thrift Shop

Cover: The Nakano Thrift Shop - Hiromi Kawakami

Hiromi Kawakami

The Nakano Thrift Shop

2017, pp. 224, e-Book
ISBN: 9781609454005
Translated by: Allison Markin Powell
Region: Japan
Paper edition Paper edition Paper edition
$ 9.99
READ NOW READ NOW READ NOW

The book

Featuring a delightfully offbeat cast of characters, The Nakano Thrift Shop is a generous-hearted portrayal of human relationships by one of Japan's most beloved authors.

Objects for sale at the Nakano Thrift Shop appear as commonplace as the staff and customers that handle them. But like those same customers and staff, they hold many secrets. If examined carefully, they show the signs of innumerable extravagancies, of immeasurable pleasure and pain, and of the deep mysteries of the human heart.

Hitomi, the inexperienced young woman who works the register at Mr. Nakano's thrift shop, has fallen for her coworker, the oddly reserved Takeo. Unsure of how to attract his attention, she seeks advice from her employer's sister, Masayo, whose sentimental entanglements make her a somewhat unconventional guide. But thanks in part to Masayo, Hitomi will come to realize that love, desire, and intimacy require acceptance not only of idiosyncrasies but also of the delicate waltz between open and hidden secrets.

Animating each delicately rendered chapter in Kawakami's playful novel is Mr. Nakano himself, an original, entertaining, and enigmatic creation whose compulsive mannerisms, secretive love life, and impulsive behavior defy all expectations.

The author

Hiromi Kawakami
Hiromi Kawakami is one of Japan’s most acclaimed and successful authors. Winner of numerous prizes for her fiction, including the Akutagawa, Ito Sei, Women Writers (Joryu Bungako Sho), and Izumi Kyoka prizes, she is the author of The Nakano Thrift Shop, a Wall Street Journal Best New Fiction pick, Strange Weather in TokyoManazuru, many many others. Her fiction has appeared in English in The Paris Review and Granta. She lives in Japan.

Press

From the same country

  • Cover: All the Lovers in the Night - Mieko Kawakami

    Mieko Kawakami

    All the Lovers in the Night

    2023, pp. 224, $ 17.95
    Bestselling author of Breasts and Eggs Mieko Kawakami invites readers back into her immediately recognizable fictional world with this new, extraordinary...
  • Cover: Love at Six Thousand Degrees - Maki Kashimada

    Maki Kashimada

    Love at Six Thousand Degrees

    2023, pp. 128, $ 17.00
    WINNER OF THE MISHIMA YUKIO PRIZE An ordinary housewife finds herself haunted by visions of a mushroom cloud and abruptly leaves her husband...
  • Cover: Heaven - Mieko Kawakami

    Mieko Kawakami

    Heaven

    2022, pp. 176, $ 16.95
    Hailed as a bold foray into new literary territory, Kawakami’s novel is told in the voice of a 14-year-old student who subjected to relentless torment...
  • Cover: All the Lovers in the Night - Mieko Kawakami

    Mieko Kawakami

    All the Lovers in the Night

    2022, pp. 224, $ 28.00
    Bestselling author of Breasts and Eggs Mieko Kawakami invites readers back into her immediately recognizable fictional world with this new, extraordinary...
  • Cover: Heaven - Mieko Kawakami

    Mieko Kawakami

    Heaven

    2021, pp. 192, $ 23.00
    Hailed as a bold foray into new literary territory, Kawakami’s novel is told in the voice of a 14-year-old student who subjected to relentless torment...
  • Cover: Touring the Land of the Dead (and Ninety-Nine Kisses) - Maki Kashimada

    Maki Kashimada

    Touring the Land of the Dead (and Ninety-Nine Kisses)

    2021, pp. 144, $ 16.00
    A story from one of Japan's rising literary stars about memory, loss, and love, Touring the Land of the Dead is a mesmerizing combination...

More suggestions

  • Cover: Belle Greene - Alexandra Lapierre

    Alexandra Lapierre

    Belle Greene

    2023, pp. 496, $ 18.95
    Based on the true story of Belle da Costa Greene, a woman who defied all odds to carve out a destiny of her own choosing, this is a richly imagined...
  • Cover: Mrs. S - K Patrick

    K Patrick

    Mrs. S

    2023, pp. 240, $ 18.00
    A sublime and sensual debut novel exploring the nature of queer love and attraction, the transformative power of desire, and the dissonance between...
  • Cover: The Road to Dalton - Shannon Bowring

    Shannon Bowring

    The Road to Dalton

    2023, pp. 250, $ 18.00
    From debut author Shannon Bowring comes a novel of small town America that Pulitzer-winner Richard Russo calls, “measured, wise, and beautiful”.
  • Cover: The House on Via Gemito - Domenico Starnone

    Domenico Starnone

    The House on Via Gemito

    2023, pp. 480, $ 27.00
    Available in English for the first time, this extraordinary prize-winning novel confirms Domenico Starnone’s reputation as one of Italy’s greatest...
  • Cover: All the Lovers in the Night - Mieko Kawakami

    Mieko Kawakami

    All the Lovers in the Night

    2023, pp. 224, $ 17.95
    Bestselling author of Breasts and Eggs Mieko Kawakami invites readers back into her immediately recognizable fictional world with this new, extraordinary...
  • Cover: Barbara Isn’t Dying - Alina Bronsky

    Alina Bronsky

    Barbara Isn’t Dying

    2023, pp. 192, $ 17.00
    A bittersweet and hilarious novel about a marriage whose decades-old routine is suddenly upended.

Join Our Newsletter and receive a FREE eBook!

Stay updated on Europa’s forthcoming releases, author tours and major news.

Are you a bookseller? Click here!

Are you a librarian? Click here!

X