"[A] 21st-century response to Herman Melville's 'Bartleby, the Scrivener.'" -NPR

"A thought-provoking, drily funny critique of capitalism and the systems of self-worth that are built around it." -TIME, "Must-Read Books of the Year"

A young woman walks into an employment agency and requests a job that has the following traits: it is close to her home, and it requires no reading, no writing, and ideally, very little thinking.

Her first gig--watching the hidden-camera feed of an author suspected of storing contraband goods--turns out to be inconvenient. (When can she go to the bathroom?) Her next gives way to the supernatural: announcing advertisements for shops that mysteriously disappear. As she moves from job to job--writing trivia for rice cracker packages; punching entry tickets to a purportedly haunted public park--it becomes increasingly apparent that she's not searching for the easiest job at all, but something altogether more meaningful. And when she finally discovers an alternative to the daily grind, it comes with a price.

This is the first time Kikuko Tsumura--winner of Japan's most prestigious literary award--has been translated into English. There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job is as witty as it is unsettling--a jolting look at the maladies of late capitalist life through the unique and fascinating lens of modern Japanese culture.

• We started tracking this book on January 1, 2021.
• This book was $9.99 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 84 times in the past 1,734 days.
• The current price of this book is $9.99 last checked 9 hours ago.
• This book is at its lowest price in the past 90 days.
• This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past six months is $9.32.
• This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past year is $3.99.
• The lowest price to date was $1.99 last reached on February 20, 2023.
• This book has been $1.99 2 times since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was $11.39 last reached on August 10, 2024.
• This book has been $11.39 2 times since we started tracking it.

• Literature & FictionLiterary FictionHumor
• Literature & FictionGenre FictionCity Life
• Literature & FictionHumor & SatireHumor

• Publication Date: March 23, 2021
• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 405 Pages
• File Size: 11 KB