Hanako Footman

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. 

Flo is sick of Tokyo. Suffering from a crisis in confidence, she is stuck in a rut, her translation work has dried up and she's in a relationship that's run its course. That's until she stumbles upon a mysterious book left by a fellow passenger on the Tokyo Subway. From the very first page, Flo is transformed and immediately feels compelled to translate this forgotten novel, a decision which sets her on a path that will change her life... It is a story about Ayako, a fierce and strict old woman who runs a coffee shop in the small town of Onomichi, where she has just taken guardianship of her grandson, Kyo.

Haunted by long-buried family tragedy, both have suffered extreme loss and feel unable to open up to each other. As Flo follows the characters across a year in rural Japan, through the ups and downs of the pair's burgeoning relationship, she quickly realises that she needs to venture outside the pages of the book to track down its elusive author. And, as her two protagonists reveal themselves to have more in common with her life than first meets the eye, the lines between text and translator converge. The journey is just beginning. From the author of The Cat and the City, Four Seasons in Japan is a gorgeously crafted book-within-a-book about literature, purpose and what it is to belong.

A golden summer, and six talented teenagers are looking forward to the brightest of futures - until a daredevil game goes horribly wrong, leaving three strangers dead.

Eighteen-year-old Megan takes the blame for the crime, leaving her friends to get on with their lives. In return, they each agree to a 'favour', payable on her release from prison.

Twenty years later Megan is free.

It is payback time.

And her friends start disappearing, one by one...