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A Novel of Food and Murder ? The Cult Japanese Bestseller about a Serial Killer Cook
by Asako Yuzuki
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.
There are two things that I simply cannot tolerate: feminists and margarine.
Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in the Tokyo Detention House convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, whom 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 master class in food than journalistic research. Rika hopes this gastronomic exchange will help her soften Kajii, but it seems that Rika might be the one changing. With each meal she eats, something is awakening in her body. Do she and Kajii have more in common than she once thought?
Inspired by the real case of a 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.
"[Asako] Yuzuki takes a thrilling look into female relationships, revealing the complex nature of modern-day social conventions pertaining to a woman's appearance and her place in the home, and enriching the proceedings with mouthwatering descriptions of food. Like the meals Yuzuki describes, this leaves the reader satiated." —Publishers Weekly
"Asako Yuzuki has turned [Butter] into not just a fascinating psychological puzzle but also a damning indictment of Japanese misogyny and fatphobia." —New York Times
"An unputdownable, breathtakingly original novel about true crime, loneliness, and female appetite in all its tricky, transgressive glory. I will be spoon-feeding Butter to every woman I know." —Erin Kelly, author of The Skeleton Key
This information about Butter was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Asako Yuzuki was born in Tokyo in 1981. Her English-language debut, Butter, an international bestseller, was named Waterstones Book of the Year 2024 and took home the British Book Awards 2025 Debut Fiction Award. For Hooked, she received the Yamamoto Shūgorō Award.
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