Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my digital ARC of Checking Out by Meryem El Mehdati, translated by Julia Sanches. I am a sucker for a workplace novel, and Checking Out hit pretty much all of my boxes! There are anti-tourist protests going on across the Canaries right now, and this book fits in with the discourse perfectly. The main character, Meryem, works for corporate for the largest supermarket chain in Gran Canaria, but her job is slowly sucking away her will to live. El Mehdati perfectly gets across the frustration the narrator feels at so many aspects of her life - seemingly pointless jobs, situationships, microaggressions at work and on the street, racism and xenophobia against her, a born and raised Canarian of Moroccan descent, while white British tourists are welcomed (though, not so much universally anymore).

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Any book taking a blow at capitalism and its injustices is going to be a winner for me, and I LOVED the ending - bleak as it was. El Mehdati rails against the 40 hour work week, which isn’t really 40 hours since office workers are then expected to socialise outside of these hours with colleagues to get ahead, or always be on their emails - who has the energy? Not to mention the inequalities in pay at somewhere like a supermarket, with corporate staff versus supermarket workers. I was impressed with the way all this commentary is woven in to the narrator’s stream of consciousness, without it feeling like we’ve veered off into a nonfiction essay.

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My one drawback - I know we cannot erase HP from the zeitgeist, but is it necessary to mention in every millennial novel? It always leaves a bad taste. But apart from that, this novel is well worth checking out (oop, sorry, couldn’t resist).