diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ from os import path
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
 
 this_directory = path.abspath(path.dirname(__file__))
-with open(path.join(this_directory, 'README.md')) as f:
+with open(path.join(this_directory, 'README.md'), encoding='utf-8') as f:
     long_description = f.read()
 
 setup(
Read README as unicode for #<I>