The Nakano Thrift Shop: A Novel

The objects for sale at the Nakano Thrift Shop appear as commonplace as the staff & customers who handle them. But like those staff & customers, they hold many secrets. If examined carefully, they show the signs of innumerable extravagances, of immeasurable pleasure & pain, & of the deep mysteries of the human heart. Hitomi, the inexperienced young woman who works the register, 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, & intimacy require acceptance not only of idiosyncrasies but also of the delicate waltz between open & hidden secrets, in this novel from the author of Strange Weather in Tokyo that “captures an untranslatable Japanese mood” — New York Times 

“Uses a series of vignettes to chronicle a girl’s time working at Mr. Nakano’s secondhand store in Tokyo . . . Pleasant, leisurely prose.” — Publishers Weekly 

“Hiromi Kawakami’s charming novel illuminates moments of kindness, love & friendship that pop up like the unexpected treasures amid the shop’s dusty collection of pretty mismatched bowls & plates, castoff eyeglasses, task lamps & old electric fans.” — Minneapolis Star-Tribune

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Hiromi Kawakami was born in Tokyo in 1958. Her first book, God (Kamisama) was published in 1994. In 1996, she was awarded the Akutagawa Prize for Tread on a Snake (Hebi o fumu), & in 2001 she won the Tanizaki Prize for her novel Strange Weather in Tokyo (Sensei no kaban), which was an international bestseller. The book was short-listed for the 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize & the 2014 International Foreign Fiction Prize.