Butter by Asako Yuzuki and Translated by Polly Barton - #bookreview

The row of tall, narrow houses all in the same shade of ecru trailed up the gently sloping hill, with no end in sight. Everywhere in this well-kept neighbourhood left a seamlessly uniform impression, and Rika Machida had begun to feel as if she were circling round and round a single spot.

***

The Blurb

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. 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, gripping exploration of misogyny, obsession and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan.

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.

My Review

This is a unique book, and I cannot recall anything similar in my reading experience.

It is a genre-defying novel based on fact. The main character is a journalist, Rika Machida who is trying to find a way to interview Manako Kajii, who has been convicted and imprisoned for the murders of three older men after they have eaten meals that she prepared for them.

This is a really interesting book. It was fascinating to observe the way in which Rika, the only female journalist in her office, finds a way in which she can get an exclusive interview with Kajii, who has refused all approaches from the press before. Through Kajii's love of food, she is able to find a way through and to meet her face to face.

There are many references to food and dishes in this book, most of which were new to me. As we watch Rika's own attempts at cooking some of the recipes that Kajii demands she cooks, we become immersed in this story of discovery alongside her. The food and cooking is described in detail. The descriptions are mouth-watering and sensual, and Rika attempts to understand Kajii's motivation and psyche in her love of cooking.

Whilst there is a mystery running alongside, the book is really about how society views women in Japan and how women are expected to conform to a particular size and role. It also touches on themes of trauma, and we read how all these things are affected by an attitude to food.

I enjoyed this book very much, and I recommend it if you fancy something a little different.

Book Details

ISBN: 978 0008511715

Publisher: Fourth Estate

Formats: e-book, audio, hardback and paperback

No. of Pages: 464 (paperback)

Purchase Links

Bookshop.org

Amazon UK

Amazon US

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. 

You can also find Asako at:

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(media courtesy of https://www.rcwlitagency.com/authors/yuzuki-asako/)

(all opinions are my own)

(Bookshop.org affiliated)

Good Girls Die Last by Natali Simmonds - #BookReview #BlogTour

 

I've woken up in Matt's bed.

Stifling a yawn, I glance over at him. He has his bare back to me; messy hair, long limbs and pale white legs. He couldn't be any further away, curled up on the edge of the mattress like a mountain climber clinging to a rocky precipice. His skin is so translucent I'm able to count each knobbly vertebra jutting out of his spine.

The bed creaks as I roll on to my back...

***

Today, nothing is going right for Em. And it's about to get much worse.

Heartbroken by a recent split, with her 30th birthday looming, she loses her job and her home in the same morning because of two swaggering, dishonest men - the boss who sexually harassed her and the flatmate sleeping with her behind his fiancée's back. But all Em can think about is catching a flight to attend her sister's wedding and see her dying mother.

With a record-breaking heatwave, and a serial killer making the streets unsafe, London is completely gridlocked. Em's life has always been full of men getting their own way, and today the scorched city teems with them standing between her and home. As Em's troubled past returns to haunt her, she refuses to let them win. Her defiance leads to shocking consequences that soon spiral wildly out of control.

In a world where men don't listen, and girls have no voice, one woman can change everything.

Today, no one will be staying silent.

***

This is one of the most powerful books that I have read in quite some time, and it made for an utterly compelling read. I doubt there is a single woman who cannot identify with some of the main characters experiences.

The whole book covers the course of just one day in the life of the main character, Em. In fact, although everyone calls her Em, it is a thread throughout the book that this is not actually her name. She is Spanish, and people find her name difficult to pronounce, so much to her annoyance, everyone calls her Em. All through the book, I was eager to learn what her actual name was, and it is kept from the reader until the conclusion of the book.

The author completely inhabited her main character, so it was unsurprising to read in the author's note at the end of the book that she had experienced most of the things that happen to Em. She is a fully fleshed, highly authentic character and the author has done an excellent job in creating a character that virtually every woman will identify with to one degree or another.

The book is set during a heat wave in the UK and the intensity of the description of the heat made it palpable. I could feel the high temperatures that were being described as the author's attention to detail is superb and were an essential factor into how Em's world spirals out of control during this one, seemingly ordinary, day.

This is a powerhouse of a book which is full of rage, and I have not been able to stop thinking about it since I finished it. To be honest, I am not quite sure I will ever forget Em entirely because she represents all women and the difficulties and challenges that we all face at one time or another.

This book has been expertly written and I cannot recommend this book highly enough. 

ISBN: 978 1035402366

Publisher:  Headline

Formats:  e-book, audio and hardcover

No. of Pages:  384 (hardback)

Purchase link *

About the Author:

As the daughter of a Spanish immigrant, Natali J Simmonds has

lived all over the world. Good Girls Die Last is her first

thriller after writing fantasy novels. When not writing, she is the

Head of Community and Editorial Commissions at Jericho

Writers and lectures at Raindance Film School and The

University of The Hague.

Purchase Link

(Book courtesy of Random Things Book Tours)

*Disclosure: I only recommend books I would buy myself and all opinions expressed here are my own. This post contains an affiliate link from which I may earn a small commission.