diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index aad0903..73602a8 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 from setuptools import setup
+from os import path
 
 
 def build_native(spec):
@@ -13,6 +14,12 @@ def build_native(spec):
     )
 
 
+def load_readme():
+    this_dir = path.abspath(path.dirname(__file__))
+    with open(path.join(this_dir, "README.md"), encoding="utf-8") as f:
+        return f.read()
+
+
 setup(
     name="omikuji",
     version="0.1.2",
@@ -22,7 +29,7 @@ def build_native(spec):
         "Python binding to Omikuji, an efficient implementation of Partioned Label Trees and its variations "
         "for extreme multi-label classification"
     ),
-    long_description="README.md",
+    long_description=load_readme(),
     long_description_content_type="text/markdown",
     python_requires=">=3.5",
     url="https://github.com/tomtung/omikuji",