Upcoming Meetings

Next meeting: Monday 21 April 2025, 6.30pm

The next Litfest International Fiction Online Book Club meeting will take place at 6.30pm on Monday 21 April 2025 when we will discuss Asako Yuzuki’s acclaimed novel Butter (translated from the Japanese by Polly Barton and published in paperback and eBook by 4th Estate)

Winner of Waterstones Book of the Year 2024

‘Part of the brilliance of Butter is its framing of individual eating habits as a mystery to be solved, which in the case of both Rika and Kajii leads back to their upbringings – particularly their relationships with their respective fathers’ Josh Weeks, Guardian

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.

‘It isn’t entirely clear whether to read the novel or devour it’ Observer

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.

Photo: JUNYA INAGAKI


Translator

Polly Barton is a writer and translator of Japanese literature and non-fiction, based in Bristol. In 2019, she was awarded the Fitzcarraldo Essay Prize for her non-fiction debut ‘Fifty Sounds’. Her recent translations include Spring Garden by Tomoka Shibasaki, There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura, So We Look to the Sky by Misumi Kubo, and Where the Wild Ladies Are by Aoko Matsuda.

Join The Club

To join the Litfest International Fiction Book Club which meets regularly, usually on the third Monday of every month, email Bill Swainson at [email protected]

You can buy a paperback copy of this month’s book and other book club choices by going to our online bookshop and in this way – or by donating – support the book club and Litfest’s work. Thank you.