The Convenience Store by the Sea

This is the first English translation of popular and prolific Japanese novelist Machida, whose internationally bestselling book celebrates human connections to food, comfort, adventure, and community. In a quaint seaside town in Japan, the Tenderness is a 24-7 convenience store that firmly adheres to its credo, “Caring for people, caring for you.” The store’s handsome manager, Shiba, exudes a charm and near-mystical allure that have earned him a cultlike following of customers, most notably the older ladies from the adjacent Golden Villa Apartments. Shop assistant Mitsuri secretly puts a version of Shiba into her manga, where she has dubbed him the “phero-manager” and depicts his escapades and the attentions of his adoring fans. Machida’s novel (the first book in a series about the Tenderness) weaves together individual stories to form a detailed, lush picture of relationships and their fuel, notably the care taken with the food and beverages sold by the convenience store.