Butter by Asako Yuzuki is one of the most talked-about recent releases readers keep adding to their lists and it is easy to see why: a journalist becomes obsessed with a gourmet cook accused of murder.
What it's about
Asako Yuzuki, inspired by a real case, follows a journalist who becomes consumed by a woman imprisoned for seducing and allegedly killing lonely men, bonding with her over lavish food. It is a rich, strange novel about appetite, womanhood and the fury directed at women who refuse to shrink.
Why everyone's talking about it
Butter became an international sensation, a bestseller in translation and one of the most-talked-about literary imports of its year, praised for its sumptuous prose and its sharp gender politics.
The verdict, for now
If you want a literary novel that is sensory, subversive and impossible to stop reading, tuck in. Come for the true-crime hook, stay for a feast about hunger of every kind.
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