Skip to main content

Nanako Hanada

Biography

Nanako Hanada

Nanako Hanada is a bookseller in Tokyo. Her first book, THE BOOKSHOP WOMAN, was an unexpected global bestseller and has since been adapted into a TV drama. The royalties allowed Nanako to open her own bookshop called Kani Books.

Nanako Hanada

Books by Nanako Hanada

The Bookshop Woman: My Year Transforming Lives — One Book at a Time
written by Nanako Hanada, translated by Cat Anderson - Memoir, Nonfiction

Nanako Hanada is a passionate book lover who manages the Village Vanguard, an iconically eccentric bookstore in Tokyo. But her story takes a turn with the breakdown of her marriage. Spending her nights alone in Tokyo's four-hour capsules, she’s finding herself rather isolated. That's until Nanako finds the meet-up site Perfect Strangers. Perfect Strangers is where people meet for 30-minute bursts to find friendship or romance, build a network, or just share ideas. She sets up her profile promising to recommend people “the book that will change their life.” In the ensuing year, Nanako meets hundreds of people. Soon she discovers that she can connect with just about anyone, and bustling Tokyo begins to feel like a welcoming small town.