Butter
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4.0 • 42 Ratings
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- £7.99
Publisher Description
WINNER OF WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024
A BBC BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK
'Compelling, delightfully weird, often uncomfortable' PANDORA SYKES
'Unputdownable, breathtakingly original' ERIN KELLY
'I have been glued to Asako Yuzuki's new novel Butter’ NIGEL SLATER
‘A full-fat, Michelin-starred treat’ THE SUNDAY TIMES
The cult Japanese bestseller about a female gourmet cook and serial killer and the journalist intent on cracking her case, inspired by a true story, and translated by Polly Barton.
There are two things that I can simply not tolerate: feminists and margarine.
Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in Tokyo Detention Centre convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, who she is said to have seduced with her delicious home cooking. The case has captured the nation’s imagination but Kajii refuses to speak with the press, entertaining no visitors. That is, until journalist Rika Machida writes a letter asking for her recipe for beef stew and Kajii can’t resist writing back.
Rika, the only woman in her news office, works late each night, rarely cooking more than ramen. As the visits unfold between her and the steely Kajii, they are closer to a masterclass in food than journalistic research. Rika hopes this gastronomic exchange will help her soften Kajii but it seems that she might be the one changing. With each meal she eats, something is awakening in her body, might she and Kaji have more in common than she once thought?
Inspired by the real case of the convicted con woman and serial killer, "The Konkatsu Killer", Asako Yuzuki’s Butter is a vivid, unsettling exploration of misogyny, obsession, romance and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan.
'Luscious … I devoured this' IMOGEN CRIMP
'A salty morsel with one hell of a bite’ ALICE SLATER
‘Nothing short of ingenious’ INEWS
‘Ambitious and unsettling’ GUARDIAN
'It isn’t entirely clear whether to read the novel or devour it’ OBSERVER
About the author
Asako Yuzuki was born in Tokyo in 1981. 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 won the Yamamoto Shūgorō Award in 2015 for Nile Perch No Joshikai. She has been nominated multiple times for the Naoko Prize, and her novels have been adapted for television, radio and film.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The mouthwatering—and plentiful—descriptions of sumptuous meals and ingredients alone would be enough to keep you craving more of Butter from Japanese novelist Asako Yuzuki, but that’s not all there is to sink your teeth into. Loosely based on the story of a real-life serial killer, Butter zooms in on a journalist, Rika, and her attempts to make contact with Manako Kajii, the woman at the centre of a sensational murder trial that has recently gripped Japan. On the advice of her newly married best friend, Reiko—whose prowess in the kitchen eclipses Rika’s own—Rika’s next interview request panders to Manako’s love of food and she is granted permission to visit her in jail. From there, the narrative follows Rika’s attempt to balance the danger of her growing obsession with Manako with her desire to uncover the truth behind the murders, all the while seeing the world from the startling new perspective her subject has opened her eyes to. Yuzuki interrogates notions of femininity, desire, sexual politics and body image in a way that is specific to Japan (but depressingly universal to many of the world’s cultures) with particular focus on how Manako’s weight and appetite for indulgence impact public perception of her character and, consequently, her culpability in the deaths of three of her former lovers. Rich in flavoursome detail, Butter is page-turning food for thought.
