diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 379f509..311c2d7 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,16 +1,24 @@
+import io
 import os
 import sys
-import setuptools 
+from setuptools import setup
 
 # Workaround: bdist_wheel doesn't support absolute paths in data_files
 # (see: https://bitbucket.org/pypa/wheel/issues/92). 
 if os.getuid() == 0 and 'bdist_wheel' in sys.argv:
     raise RuntimeError("This setup.py does not support wheels")
 
-setuptools.setup(
+# read the contents the README file
+this_directory = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))
+with io.open(os.path.join(this_directory, 'README.md'), 'r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
+    long_description = f.read()
+
+setup(
     setup_requires=[
         'pbr >= 1.9',
         'setuptools >= 17.1'
     ],
-    pbr=True
+    pbr=True,
+    long_description=long_description,
+    long_description_content_type='text/markdown'
 )