I was drawn to the cover of this book and the fact it was non-fiction (though it read like fiction and would appeal to someone who thinks they don’t like reading non-fiction). I thought it was published in May so read it then, but it’s actually out in early June.

Nanako Hanada (trans. Cat Anderson) – “The Bookshop Woman”

(7 May 2024, NetGalley)

I didn’t need ordinary happiness. I didn’t need romance, or marriage. I didn’t need money or stability. I didn’t need anything. All I needeed was to live my life, and keep believing in the hope I’d seen today. I could see it clearly now: the happiness I’d been searching for. That was the kind of night it was.

Nanako is breaking up with her husband and living in a tiny flat; she works in a weird shop which is part-novelties and part-books, staffed by life’s slightly odder people; she’s always fitted in there but recently wanted a bit more. She joins a website called PerfectStrangers where you can meet a stranger for half an hour in public, and documents the people she meets, quickly deciding her schtick will be recommending a book to them. There’s a sweet little line drawing of each main person she meets.

Soon she’s expanding her friendship group, hanging out playing games and taking part in a recommending marathon with booksellers. We get her rules for matching books to people and enjoy meeting in the main nice people, some of whom she befriends properly.

There’s a chapter-by-chapter bibliography (with a note of which books are available in English translation), a recommended reading list by Nanako and a list of books recommended by the publisher, Brazen (I’ve read none of the former and two of the latter) which makes it a lovely and friendly resource as well as an interesting read in itself.

Thank you to Octopus Publishing for selecting me to read this novel in return for an honest review. “The Bookshop Woman” is published on 6 June 2024.