The new instant Sunday Times bestseller from the award-winning author of BUTTER

THE MILLION COPY #1 BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF BUTTER IS BACK WITH A NEW NOVEL OF OBSESSION

'Tender and thrilling it's Yuzuki at her best' ELLE

'Deliciously satisfying' iPAPER

'Enjoyable and addictive' INDEPENDENT

'Fantastically dark' ERIN KELLY

BUTTER won Waterstones'' Book of the Year 2024, the Books Are My Bag Breakthrough Author Award 2024 and the British Book Awards'' Debut Fiction Award 2025. It was shortlisted for the CWA Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger Award 2025. Asako Yuzuki has a big profile in Japan having won multiple literary awards. HOOKED (published as Nile Perch Girls Club in Japan) won the Yamamoto ShAgoro Award (awarded annually to a new work of fiction considered to exemplify the art of storytelling - previous winners include Banana Yoshimoto). Competition: Butter; Strange Pictures; The Pisces; Convenience Store Woman; Chlorine; Strange Houses; Diary of a Void; Piglet; Breasts and Eggs; Hunger; Bunny; Boy Parts; So Thrilled For You; Sweat. Melissa Broder; Sayaka Murata; Jade Song; Uketsu; Eliza Clark; Lottie Hazell; Mieko Kawakami; Choi Jin-young; Mona Awad; Holly Bourne

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Asako Yuzuki was born in Tokyo in 1981. 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 has been nominated multiple times for the Naoko Prize, and her novels have been adapted for television, radio and film. Butter, her first novel translated into English, won Waterstones Book of the Year 2024, the Books Are My Bag Breakthrough Author Award and Fiction Debut of the Year at the British Book Awards, among other accolades.

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THE MILLION COPY #1 BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF BUTTERIS BACK WITH A NEW NOVEL OF OBSESSION

**'Tender and thrilling it's Yuzuki at her best'**ELLE

**'Deliciously satisfying'**iPAPER

**'Enjoyable and addictive'**INDEPENDENT

**'Fantastically dark'**ERIN KELLY

The thrilling new novel of friendship and dangerous obsession from Asako Yuzuki, the award-winning author of the global sensation Butter.

Eriko really wouldn't mind being savaged, if it was her best friend doing the savaging ...

Eriko's life appears perfect - devoted parents, pristine apartment and a high-flying job in the seafood division of one of Japan's largest trading companies. Her latest project, to reintroduce the controversial Nile perch fish into the Japanese market, is characteristically ambitious. But beneath her flawless surface she is wracked by loneliness.

Eriko becomes fascinated with a popular blog written by a housewife, Sh ko. Sh ko's posts about convenience-store food and her messy home are the opposite of the typical manicured housewife. When Eriko tracks Sh ko down at her favourite restaurant, Sh ko is at first charmed by her new companion. But soon Eriko's obsession with Sh ko begins to spiral out of control. How far will she go to hold on to the best friend she's ever had?

Beautifully translated by Polly Barton, Hooked is a delicious exploration of food, loneliness and womanhood in contemporary Japan.

A most anticipated book in Vogue, Guardian, New York Times, The Times, Sunday Times Style, Elle, Stylist, Graziaand more.

**'Expect to see this distinctive pink cover everywhere'**GRAZIA

**'A psychological thriller with a social commentary bite'**INDEPENDENT

'Unsettling, compelling, richly written' JODIE HARSH, author of You Had to Be There

**'Translated with crackling verve'**GUARDIAN

**'I couldn't stop reading'**COSTANZA CASATI, author of Babylonia

**'Stayed with me for weeks'**IRISH TIMES

**'Tremendous - an elegantly written ... dissection of female friendship'**THE GLOSS

**'You can't fail to be reeled in'**SERVICE95

**'Will leave you gasping'**TOBI COVENTRY, author of He's the Devil

**'No one writes about the lurking monstrosities of womanhood quite like Asako Yuzuki'**ALICE SLATER, author of Death of a Bookseller