Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder

by Asako Yuzuki, Polly Barton (Translator)

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

The ultimate cat-and-mouse thriller starring a serial killer chef and the hungry young journalist craving to learn her secrets. Set in Japan against a backdrop of culinary intrigue and obsession, Butter has already reached cult bestseller status across the globe.

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

The cult Japanese bestseller, a literary thriller 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063236417
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/29/2024
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.80(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

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.

Editorial Reviews

“A tale of loneliness and desire, full of an urgency that is proof of the author diving down deep within herself to grasp the darkness there. Even descriptions like ‘a perfect masterpiece’ and ‘crème de la crème’ are inadequate for a book like this.” - Michiko Mamuro, Croissant
 “An indubitable masterpiece.”
- Daisuke Yoshida, Shosetsu Shincho
“With writing masterful enough that you gulp it down breathlessly despite its length, and full of the delight that comes from carrying you off to utterly unexpected destinations, this is a tour de force that will leave readers satisfied.” - Ryo Asai (author), Yomiuri Shimbun
"Ambitious and unsettling … a thought-provoking and surprisingly feelgood take on friendship, transgressive pleasures, and society’s impossibly contradictory expectations of women." - Guardian
"Exuberant, indulgent romp of a novel … Butter is a full-fat, Michelin-starred treat that moves seamlessly between an Angry Young Woman narrative and an engrossing detective drama and back again. Yuzuki has crafted an almost Dickensian cast of fleshy characters, with just as many surprise connections … Let this book bring you under its spell." - The Times (UK)
“The lure of Butter is the lure of butter: rich, salty and unctuous. . . . Butter is both an exploration of the life of an unusual femme fatale and a subtle polemic against the impossible beauty standards to which women are held.”
- Washington Post
"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
"It'll make your mouth water." - Irish Independent
"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
"A delectable meditation on appetite, fatphobia and misogyny in modern Japan – Butter is a salty morsel with one hell of a bite." - Alice Slater, author of Death of a Bookseller
"[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
"An intriguing and unusual novel with a fresh perspective [that] defies categorization: part psychological exploration of misogyny and fatphobia, part social commentary on contemporary Japan and the roles and expectations of the women who live there." - Library Journal Advance Reviews
“The novel cleverly intertwines paeans to the pleasures of eating with indictments of Japan’s standards for women.”

- New Yorker

From the Publisher