La Dependienta

La Dependienta

Keiko Furukura is 36 years old and single. In fact, she has never had a partner. Since she left her traditional family to move to Tokyo, she works part-time as a shop assistant at a konbini, a 24-hour Japanese supermarket. She has always felt that she did not fit in with society, but in the store she has found a predictable world, governed by a manual that dictates to the workers how to act and what to say. She has managed to achieve that normality that society demands of her: everyone wants to see Keiko form a home, follow a conventional path that makes her, in her eyes, an adult. With this hilarious vision of society's expectations of single women, Sayaka Murata has established herself as the new voice of Japanese literature.--English translation of the Spanish provided by publisher.