Kazumasa Hayami’s How Can My Manager Be So Stupid? Gets English Release

Prolific Japanese novelist Kazumasa Hayami makes his English debut with the release of How Can My Manager Be So Stupid?, published in the UK by MacLehose Press, an imprint of Quercus. The novel follows Kyoko Tanihara, a contract employee in her late twenties who works at Musashino Bookstore. Despite her lifelong passion for literature and joy in helping customers find books, Tanihara struggles with low wages, difficult publisher relations, and an infuriating manager named Takeru Yamamoto.

The story explores themes of workplace frustration and the love of reading, offering humor and relatable sentiments for retail workers. It is translated by Haydn Trowell and available in paperback, hardback, eBook, and audiobook formats. Two sequel volumes exist in Japan, though their Western availability remains unconfirmed.