How Can My Manager Be So Stupid
Will be published approx. on 3. September 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
320 pages
978-1-5294-4636-4 (ISBN)
Description
A candid story of one woman's fight to find her place in life, clinging against all the odds to her passion for reading and for sharing stories.
Kyoko still loves books. Just about. But life at the Musashino Bookshop is starting to get her down. Above all, there's one question that keeps going round and round her head: How can my manager be so stupid?
From his obsession with self-helps books to his insistence on giving inspirational speeches at staff meetings, everything about Takeru Yamamoto seems designed to set Kyoko's teeth on edge. And, as the bookshop lurches from crisis to crisis, facing criticism from customers and authors alike, it's tough for her to keep her love of literature alive. Only the prospect of changing a life by handing over the perfect book keeps her going.
But then, she herself is handed a book that changes everything. Within its pages, all the struggles of her daily life are reflected back at her. Who could have written it? Was there more to her manager than meets the eye all along?
A winning blend of slice-of-life (somewhat romantic, occasionally ludicrous) comedy, satire and drama with a pinch of mystery to spice things up, this is the perfect read for anyone who has felt that they can't even . . . with the idiots that walk among us
Translated from the Japanese by Haydn Trowell
Kyoko still loves books. Just about. But life at the Musashino Bookshop is starting to get her down. Above all, there's one question that keeps going round and round her head: How can my manager be so stupid?
From his obsession with self-helps books to his insistence on giving inspirational speeches at staff meetings, everything about Takeru Yamamoto seems designed to set Kyoko's teeth on edge. And, as the bookshop lurches from crisis to crisis, facing criticism from customers and authors alike, it's tough for her to keep her love of literature alive. Only the prospect of changing a life by handing over the perfect book keeps her going.
But then, she herself is handed a book that changes everything. Within its pages, all the struggles of her daily life are reflected back at her. Who could have written it? Was there more to her manager than meets the eye all along?
A winning blend of slice-of-life (somewhat romantic, occasionally ludicrous) comedy, satire and drama with a pinch of mystery to spice things up, this is the perfect read for anyone who has felt that they can't even . . . with the idiots that walk among us
Translated from the Japanese by Haydn Trowell
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Quercus Publishing
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Illustrations
N/A
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 135 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-5294-4636-4 (9781529446364)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
approx. 09/2026
MacLehose Press
€9.49
Not yet available
Persons
Kazumasa Hayami is a writer and screenwriter, born in 1977 in Kanagawa Prefecture. His debut novel 108 was a bestseller and later made into a manga and a film. He won the Japan Mystery Writers Association Award for his novel Innocent Days, and the Yamamoto Shugoro Prize for The Royal Family. His novels are almost all adapted for screen.