The Nakano Thrift Shop

Among the jumble of paperweights, plates, typewriters and general bric-a-brac in Mr Nakano`s thrift store, there are treasures to be found. Each piece carries it`s own story of love and loss - or so it seems to Hitomi, when she takes a job there working behind the till. Nor are her fellow employees any less curious or weatherworn than the items they sell. There`s the store`s owner, Mr Nakano, an enigmatic ladies man with several ex-wives; Sakiko, his sensuous, unreadable lover; his sister, Masayo, an artist whose free-spirited creations mask hidden sorrows. And finally there`s Hitomi`s fellow employee, Takeo, whose abrupt and taciturn manner Hitomi finds, to her consternation, increasingly disarming.A beguiling story of love found amid odds and ends,`The Nakano Thrift Shop`is a heart-warming and utterly charming novel from one of Japan`s most celebrated contemporary novelists.