Butter

By Asako Yuzuki

Translated by Polly Barton

A Novel of Food and Murder • Paperback • Fiction / Women The cult Japanese bestseller about a female gourmet cook and serial killer, and the journalist intent on cracking her case, is 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.