There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job

by Kikuko Tsumura · 2021

A young woman steps into an employment agency and asks for the simplest work possible—no reading, no writing, and as little thinking as she can manage. What follows is a series of bizarre gigs that pull her into the absurd underbelly of modern Japan: monitoring a hidden‑camera feed of a suspect author, announcing ads for shops that vanish, penning trivia for rice‑cracker wrappers, and punching tickets for a supposedly haunted park. Each job is more surreal than the last, exposing the hollow promises of late‑capitalist life and the quiet desperation that fuels it. As she drifts from one meaningless task to another, she begins to realize she isn’t chasing an easy escape but a deeper sense of purpose—one that may demand a steep price. Kikuko Tsumura’s sharp, deadpan humor and uncanny observations turn this debut English translation into a witty, unsettling meditation on work, identity, and the search for meaning in a world that insists there’s no such thing as an easy job.