BUTTER
by Asako Yuzuki, translated by Polly Barton
(Fourth Estate, $34.99)
Three men are dead and a woman – Manako Kajii, reviled for her full figure and love of French cuisine –is in the Tokyo Detention House. Did she kill these men or were they victims of society, lost without a maternal influence, destined only for a sad and lonely death? Loosely based on real events, Asako Yuzuki’s Butter, published originally
