HT reviewer Teja Lele picks her favourite read of 2024

A delectable murder mystery inspired by a case that transfixed Japan, this is also a slice-of-life take on myriad women’s issues

Celebrity chefs love butter. This is true whether it is Julia Child (With enough butter, anything is good), Alice Waters (Everything tastes better with butter), or Anthony Bourdain (I like butter. I like a lot of butter).

Utterly butterly delicious: Apart from gastronomic exchanges, the book touches upon misogyny, sexism, the gender gap, obsession, romance, and the impossible standards that Japanese women are held to. (Fourth Estate)

In Asako Yuzuki’s Butter, an infamous celebrity chef loves it too. “There are two things that I simply cannot tolerate: feminists and margarine,” says Manako Kajii, setting the tone for a slice-of-life take on myriad women’s issues and a delectable murder mystery.

Kajii, a female gourmet cook and serial killer, based on Kanae Kijima, who has been convicted of poisoning three would-be husbands between 2007 and 2009, grabs the spotlight in this cult Japanese bestseller. First published in Japan in 2017 and translated into English by Polly Barton in 2024, the novel has Rika Machida, a journalist who wants to crack the case that has enthralled people across Japan, pursuing Kajii for her story. However, Kajii refuses to speak to the press until Rika writes to her, requesting her recipe for beef bourguignon. The only woman in her office, Rika works late each night and rarely uses her kitchen. After all, “Food and fashion — the things that women were supposed to have a particular fondness for — had always left Rika indifferent”. She leads a disciplined life, eating to stay slim and focusing on work.

But when the steely Kajii writes back, Rika begins visiting her in the detention centre and the duo begin an unusual exploration. Apart from gastronomic exchanges, they touch upon misogyny, sexism, the gender gap, obsession, romance, and the impossible standards that Japanese women are held to. Under Kajji’s tutelage, Rika’s appetite for rich food, especially “rice with butter and soy sauce”, increases along with her weight and thought processes.

Yuzuki’s novel has invited comparisons with other food-focused books, including Bonnie Garmus’s Lessons in Chemistry and Banana Yoshimoto’s Kitchen.

Reviewer Teja Lele (Courtesy the subject)

But Butter, which starts out as a thriller, pans out into a complex portrait of Japan’s social fabric. It may be set in Japan, but the message – of how social conditioning and stereotyping has disempowered women profoundly -- holds true across the world.

“Women who are good at cooking are said to be a source of comfort for men, who let their guard down,” Yuzuki writes. “But the better one is at cooking, the better their ability to murder if they are dissatisfied,” she adds. A delicious cautionary tale, this!

Teja Lele is an independent editor and writes on books, travel and lifestyle.