Hooked

A STYLIST MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2026

‘Yuzuki has become the poster girl of a British boom for Japanese fiction’ THE TIMES

The unmissable new novel of friendship and dangerous obsession from Asako Yuzuki, the award-winning author of the global bestselling sensation Butter.

Eriko really wouldn't mind being savaged, if it was her best friend doing the savaging …

Eriko's life appears perfect – devoted parents, spotless apartment and a job in the seafood division of one of Japan's largest trading companies. Her latest project, to reintroduce the controversial Nile perch fish into the Japanese market, is characteristically ambitious. But beneath her flawless surface she is wracked by loneliness.

Eriko becomes fascinated with a popular blog written by a housewife, Shoko. Shoko’s posts about eating convenience store food and her untidy home are the opposite of the typical Japanese housewife’s manicured lifestyle. When Eriko tracks Shoko down at her favourite restaurant and befriends her, Shoko is at first charmed by her new companion. But as Eriko’s obsession with Shoko deepens, her increasingly possessive behaviour starts to raise suspicion. As Eriko’s carefully laid plans begin to unravel, how far will she go to hold on to the best friend that she’s ever had?

Beautifully translated by Polly Barton, Hooked is a thrilling and unsettling story of the line between friendship and dangerous obsession. A delicious exploration of food, loneliness and womanhood in contemporary Japan, Hooked brings together all the ingredients for which Asako Yuzuki is so adored.

Reviews

Praise for Butter:

‘Exuberant, indulgent romp of a novel … Butter is a full-fat, Michelin-starred treat’ Sunday Times

'Yuzuki has created a cult phenomenon' iNews

‘Yuzuki has become the poster girl of a British boom for Japanese fiction’ The Times

‘Word of mouth hit and cult Japanese bestseller, Butter, took the literary world by storm' BBC

‘Readers around the world are finding themselves utterly captivated’ Daily Mail

‘Ambitious and unsettling … a thought-provoking and surprisingly feelgood take on friendship, transgressive pleasures, and society’s impossibly contradictory expectations of women’ Guardian

‘A biting satire on fat-shaming culture and double standards in beauty’ Financial Times

'I have been glued to Butter’ Nigel Slater

‘I really enjoyed it’ Meera Syal, on BBC Between the Covers

'Compelling, delightfully weird' Pandora Sykes, author of How Do We Know We're Doing It Right?

'Unputdownable, breathtakingly original' Erin Kelly, author of Broadchurch

‘A heady serving of food culture and feminism … Yuzuki goes beyond the typical crime narrative’ Japan Times

About the author

Asako Yuzuki was born in Tokyo in 1981. Butter, her first novel translated into English, won Waterstones Book of the Year 2024, the Books Are My Bag Breakthrough Author Award and Fiction Debut of the Year at the British Book Awards, among other accolades.

She won the All Yomimono Award for New Writers for her story, ‘Forget Me, Not Blue’, which appeared in her debut, Shuuten No Anoko, published in 2010. She has been nominated multiple times for the Naoko Prize, and her novels have been adapted for television, radio and film.