Our Friends at the Convenience Store by the Sea

'I believe that everyone has, at one time or another, overcome some hardship in their life, thanks to the companionship of a fictional friend' For our friends at the Tenderness convenience store in Mojiko, there's never a dull day. Mitsuri's heart is fluttering because her favourite pop idol is in town! But why does he seem so down? Hirose has always stayed away from drama... so how has he been roped into a fake romance with the woman who ruined Tsugi's life? Jewel doesn't know what she wants to do with her life. Sometimes inspiration comes from unexpected sources... Shiba's fan club is always expanding... but things have taken a strange turn... The third instalment of the bestselling series that sold over half a million copies, Our Friends at the Convenience Store by the Sea follows the customers and employees of a beloved 24/7 convenience store in Japan.

Sonoko Machida is an award-winning Japanese author, born in 1980 in Fukuoka Prefecture. In 2016, she won the Onna ni yoru onna no tame no R-18 bungakusho (By Women for Women R-18 Literature Prize) for Kamerun no aoi sakana (Blue Fish of Cameroon). Her masterpiece 52 herutsu no kujira-tachi (The 52-Hertz Whales), won the 2021 Japanese Booksellers' Award and became a bestseller with about half a million copies sold in Japan. Her two following novels, Hoshi wo sukuu (Scooping Up the Stars) and Sora gohan (Sora's Recipes), were both nominated for the award in consecutive years.