April Book Chat: Butter

We will be doing this Book Chat online.
Hope to see you all!

For our April Book Chat we will be reading Butter by Asako Yuzuki: https://abc.nl/book-details/butter/@9780008511715

About the book:

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.

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?

Happy reading!

(I'll be including trigger warnings from now on, to make sure our book club is a safe and fun space for everyone. Reader-supplied content/trigger warnings for this book can be found here: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/82cda351-2e3f-48d3-8308-b2cd3ffdd855/content_warnings)