Join us on Tuesday 30th July at 7.30pm-8.30pm for SYP South West’s Book Club! This month we’ll be discussing ‘Butter’ by Asako Yuzuki, selected by you on our Instagram (@syp_southwest)!
(Zoom link here)
SYP South West’s July Book Club is a virtual event via Zoom. Our Book Club meetings are an informal space to chat with other readers and publishing hopefuls. There are no expectations for you to contribute to the discussion or to have your camera on – we want everyone to join in a way that is comfortable for them! Whether you’ve finished the book, are part-way through or haven’t even opened the cover, we would love to see you there.
Butter
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 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.
Asako Yuzuki
Asako Yuzuki is a Japanese writer. 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.
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