The Bookshop Woman

By Nanako Hanada

Translated from Japanese by Cat Anderson

The narrative begins with the protagonist/author, Nanako, separating from her husband and suffering a crisis of confidence. While her home situation is in turmoil, her work as a bookseller is equally unsatisfying. After ten years at Village Vanguard – a retail chain bookstore/department store, she feels a sense of discontent at the state of her life.

On a whim, she joins Perfect Strangers, a meetup site where you can list a 30-minute conversation slot at a particular location, typically a coffee shop, and wait for someone to agree to join you at the appointed date and time. Although not strictly a dating site, having an intriguing bio helps your prospects. As an avid reader, Nanako puts up a quirky photo, calls herself a ‘sexy bookseller’ and offers to recommend a book to the person who meets her.

Thus begin Nanako’s adventures in stepping out of her comfort zone and figuring out the ways of the world through a selection of people, both men and women whom she encounters over the following weeks and months through Perfect Strangers.

While her initial conversations feel a bit off, she finds her feet soon enough. A large part of the book recounts her conversations with eccentric personalities, people with unusual jobs, older and younger adults, some helpful, some who hit on her and some that she wonders might grow into something more than just a coffee date.

In each case, she is able to recommend a book that she thinks might be suitable for her ‘date’ and is thrilled when they respond enthusiastically after reading it. Over time, her circle grows as she gets roped into the intersecting social circles of the people she meets. There are some that she meets more than once. Although all the meetups are platonic, the author acknowledges a fact that I can attest to as a woman – the comfort that permeates conversations with other women.

Soon, she finds herself living an interesting life, one which is filled with unscripted interactions where she is able to flex her book recommending superpower and manages to learn about herself in the process. This leads to an amicable resolution of her divorce as well as sets the stage for her career progression as well. 

This book is unique for many reasons, one of which indicated my state of cluelessness. This is the first time I read a story assuming it was fiction, until I realised on the last page that it was a true story. At the end of the book you can find a list of the books recommended in the chapters as well as additional reading suggestions. While it was helpful to learn that several titles were available only in the original Japanese, it was a bit disappointing as well. I was personally pleased to see that I had read some of them (in English) and have added a few others to my TBR.

My opinion: A cool true story that suggests that we all have something to offer and many things to learn when we meet people with an open mind. And who knows? It may easily lead the way to a life of your choosing.