Description

‘Surreal and unsettling’ OBSERVER CULTURAL HIGHLIGHT

‘Wise, comical and exceptionally relatable’ ZEBA TALKHANI

‘Quietly hilarious and deeply attuned to the uncanny rhythms and deadpan absurdity of the daily grind’ SHARLENE TEO

A woman walks into an employment agency and requests a job that requires no reading, no writing – and ideally, very little thinking.

She is sent to an office building where she is tasked with watching the hidden-camera feed of an author suspected of storing contraband goods. But observing someone for hours on end isn’t so easy. How will she stay awake? When can she take delivery of her favourite brand of tea? And, perhaps more importantly – how did she find herself in this situation in the first place?

As she moves from job to job, writing bus adverts for shops that mysteriously disappear, and composing advice for rice cracker wrappers that generate thousands of devoted followers, it becomes increasingly apparent that she’s not searching for the easiest job at all, but something altogether more meaningful…

Publisher Review

Surreal and unsettling * Observer * A surreal employment odyssey ... Recommended for anyone missing time in the office * Monocle * A brilliant riposte ... don't get mad, get even - and then get even better * Saga * A wise, comical and exceptionally relatable novel on finding meaning and purpose in our work lives -- Zeba Talkhani, author of My Past is a Foreign Country Quietly hilarious and deeply attuned to the uncanny rhythms and deadpan absurdity of the daily grind, Kikuko Tsumara's postmodern existential workplace saga both skewers and celebrates our deeply human need to function in society and keep surviving in an oftentimes senseless-seeming world -- Sharlene Teo, author of Ponti Read it before you burn out * Asahi Shimbun Weekly AERA * The fantastical flavour of this book is one of its charms ... This is a masterpiece of a book about the working world -- Kentaro Tomoda * Bunshun Toshokan * Spending time in the author's unique world, which seems so bizarre and random but is in fact artfully designed, I found myself healed and restored -- Kazufumi Watanabe * Asahi Shimbun *