TY  - BOOK
AU  - Asako Yuzuki
AU  - Polly Barton(tr.)
TI  - HOOKED
SN  - 9780008815417
U1  - F 
PY  - 2026///
CY  - London
PB  - 4th Estate
KW  - Japanese fiction
KW  - Female friendship — Fiction
KW  -  Loneliness — Fiction
KW  - Women — Japan — Social conditions — Fiction
N1  - Yuzuki has become the poster girl of a British boom for Japanese fiction THE TIMES

'Tender and thrilling its Yuzuki at her best ELLE

'Safe to say, were already hooked OPRAH DAILY

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2026 IN GUARDIAN, VOGUE, ELLE, STYLIST, BBC, RADIO TIMES, OPRAH DAILY, THE NIGHTLY and the DAILY EXPRESS.

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

Eriko really wouldnt mind being savaged, if it was her best friend doing the savaging …

Erikos life appears perfect devoted parents, spotless apartment and a job in the seafood division of one of Japans 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?kos posts about eating convenience store food and her untidy home are the opposite of the typical Japanese housewifes manicured lifestyle. When Eriko tracks Sh?ko down at her favourite restaurant and befriends her, Sh?ko is at first charmed by her new companion. But as Erikos obsession with Sh?ko deepens, her increasingly possessive behaviour starts to raise suspicion. As Erikos carefully laid plans begin to unravel, how far will she go to hold on to the best friend that shes ever had?

Beautifully translated by Polly Barton, Hooked is a thrilling and unsettling story of the line between friendship and dangerous obsession. A delicious exploration of food, loneliness and womanhood in contemporary Japan, Hooked brings together all the ingredients for which Asako Yuzuki is so adored.

'Dark, spiny and slippery, this haunting tale of loneliness and longing in the modern age will leave you gasping TOBI COVENTRY, author of Hes the Devil
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