THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING SENSATION WINNER OF WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024 SHORTLISTED FOR THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS DEBUT NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2025 A BBC BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK ‘A full-fat, Michelin-starred treat’ THE SUNDAY TIMES ‘A cult phenomenon’ iNEWS ‘Took the literary world by storm’ BBC ‘A killer Japanese novel’ THE TIMES 'I have been glued to Butter’ NIGEL SLATER The cult Japanese bestseller about a female gourmet cook and serial killer and the journalist intent on cracking her case, inspired by a true story, and translated by Polly Barton. 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. 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, gripping exploration of misogyny, obsession and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan. Longlisted for the CWA Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger Award 2025 'It isn’t entirely clear whether to read the novel or devour it’ OBSERVER ‘Readers around the world are finding themselves utterly captivated’ DAILY MAIL ‘I really enjoyed it’ MEERA SYAL, on BBC Between the Covers 'Compelling, delightfully weird' PANDORA SYKES 'Unputdownable, breathtakingly original' ERIN KELLY 'You’ll be craving rice, butter and soy sauce in no time’STYLIST ‘Nothing short of ingenious’ iNEWS ‘Ambitious and unsettling’GUARDIAN 'Luscious … I devoured this' IMOGEN CRIMP 'A salty morsel with one hell of a bite’ ALICE SLATER

Butter

'Mongrel is so beautiful that I became lost in it . . . Simply, it must be read' LISA TADDEO 'A brilliant explosion of writing and storytelling . . . This feels like reading an Oscar-winning film' AISLING BEA 'Heart-shatteringly visceral and precise . . . a triumphant tribute to the self' WIZ WHARTON 'This compulsive, engrossing, and gorgeous debut will utterly consume you. Read it now' STEPHANIE SCOTT This audiobook includes an exclusive Q&A with the author Mei loses her Japanese mother at age six. Growing up in suburban Surrey, she yearns to fit in, suppressing not only her heritage but her growing desire for her best friend Fran. Yuki leaves the Japanese countryside to pursue her dream of becoming a concert violinist in London. Far from home and in an unfamiliar city, she finds herself caught up in the charms of her older teacher. Haruka attempts to navigate Tokyo's nightlife and all of its many vices, working as a hostess in the city's sex district. She grieves a mother who hid so many secrets from her, until finally one of those secrets comes to light . . . Shifting between three intertwining narratives, Mongrel reveals a tangled web of desire, isolation, belonging and ultimately, hope.

Mongrel

WATERSTONES BEST FICTION BOOKS OF 2023 PICK The Kamogawa Food Detectives, translated from Japanese by Jesse Kirkwood, is the first book in the bestselling, mouth-watering Japanese sleuthing series for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold. What’s the one dish you’d do anything to taste just one more time? Down a quiet backstreet in Kyoto exists a very special restaurant. Run by Koishi Kamogawa and her father Nagare, the Kamogawa Diner treats its customers to wonderfully extravagant meals. But that's not the main reason to stop by . . . The father-daughter duo have started advertising their services as 'food detectives'. Through ingenious investigations, they are capable of recreating a dish from their customers' pasts – dishes that may well hold the keys to unlocking forgotten memories and future happiness. From the widower looking for a specific noodle dish that his wife used to cook, to a first love's beef stew, the restaurant of lost recipes provides a link to the past – and a way to a more contented future. A bestseller in Japan, The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai is a celebration of good company and the power of a delicious meal.

The Kamogawa Food Detectives

One photograph, one treasured memory, one chance to go back . . . If you could relive one day of your life, which would you choose? In a cosy photography studio in the mountains between this world and the next, someone is waking up as if from a dream. A kind man will hand them a hot cup of tea and gently explain that, having reached the end of their life, they have one final task. There is a stack of photos on their lap, one for every day of their life, and now they must choose the pictures that capture their most treasured memories, which will be placed in a beautiful lantern. Once completed, it will be set spinning, and their cherished moments will flash before their eyes, guiding them to another world. But, like our most thumbed-over photographs, our favourite memories become faded with age, so each visitor to the studio has the chance to choose one day to return to and photograph afresh. Each has a treasured story to tell, from the old woman rebuilding a community in Tokyo after a disaster, to the flawed Yakuza man who remembers a time when he was kind, and a strong child who is fighting to survive. Extraordinarily moving and wise, Sanaka Hiiragi's The Lantern of Lost Memories is a beautiful Japanese tale about the people that make us and the moments that change us.

The Lantern of Lost Memories

From the publishers of the international bestseller Days at the Morisaki Bookshop comes a new book about the beauty of humble objects, the power of writing, and reconnecting with those you have lost. Write a letter, heal your heart . . . Hidden away in a corner of the Ginza neighbourhood is a venerable stationery shop. To venture inside is to find everything your stationery-loving heart desires, from the most delicate paper to fountain pens that fit exactly to the shape of your hand to gorgeously coloured inks. The shop owner intuits your every need, inviting you to take a seat at a small wooden table on the top floor, where you'll find the words flowing, helping you unlock repressed memories, secret longings and your own mysteries. To this shop comes a young company employee, uncertain in his career and needing a connection back to his past; the hostess of an elegant club; the vice-captain of a high-school archery team, an ageing businessman and a formerly homeless sushi chef. With impeccable manners and a warm demeanour, the shop owner helps each of them with more than just their stationery needs.

The Ginza Shihodo Stationery Shop

Letters from the Ginza Shihodo Stationery Shop

‘I wanted to pass it on to all my friends’ SHEILA HETI 'Remarkable clarity and humour'VOGUE ‘Disarmingly sweet’ NICOLA DINAN 'Funny and tender' PANDORA SYKES 'Had me hopelessly charmed' AMY KEY ‘A fever dream' SHARLENE TEO 'Impossible to put down’ LISA OWENS A most anticipated book of 2025 in Vogue, Our Culture, The Bookseller and Publishers Weekly A hilarious and utterly original debut novel following a woman trying to make sense of her life and herself as she falls in love with her therapist. Sylvie is only happy when she is at therapy. This is because Sylvie is in love with her therapist. She wants to kiss her and roll around on the floor with her. She thinks about her every second they’re not together (roughly 167 hours and 10 minutes per week). She’s aware she has an obsession, but whether it is – as her therapist suggests – a case of extreme ‘erotic transference’, or a lost person’s need to connect, Sylvie isn’t sure. Beyond therapy, Sylvie has what she considers to be a small life: a job as a veterinary nurse, her little brain-damaged dog, Curtains, and a new friend Chloe who she met on the beach. When the therapist delivers some devastating news, Sylvie has to imagine new and lasting ways of coping (that don’t include being adopted by the therapist). Her world has begun to open up, inching beyond the fear that has confined her until now, and she must decide whether she’s ready for a bravery of feeling. In this stunning debut novel, Adelaide Faith encapsulates the great vulnerability, difficulty and joy of being alive. 'There is so much rare humour and insight and sweetness and humanity … and a true and ringing voice' Sheila Heti, author of Pure Colour 'Witty and irreverent … Readers will fall in love' Publishers Weekly 'A jaw-dropping, exhilarating, completely original high-wire act' Jessica Stanley, author of Consider Yourself Kissed 'With tenderness and never force, Happiness Forever reminds us that the most meaningful choices can be the small, everyday things that simply string a life together' Pandora Sykes, author of How Do We Know We're Doing It Right? ‘For fans of Convenience Store Woman and Pond’ Sharlene Teo, author of Ponti ‘Surprising and funny … poignant and philosophical … a book I won't soon forget’ Chelsea Hodson, author of Tonight I'm Someone Else Readers love Happiness Forever⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: 'Utterly beguiling … a truly memorable read' 'Quite honestly couldn’t put it down' 'An utter joy to read! I loved it from start to finish. For fans of Big Swiss!' 'A beautifully crafted debut, filled with heart, wit and a deep understanding of what it means to be human' 'Humorous, bizarre and touching … A very strong debut!' 'So charged and insightful and provocative … I recommend it highly'

Happiness Forever

Including an introductory letter written by the author, Hisashi Kashiwai. The Restaurant of Lost Recipes, translated from Japanese by Jesse Kirkwood, is the second book in the bestselling, mouth-watering Japanese sleuthing series for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, and follows on from The Kamogawa Food Detectives. Tucked away down a Kyoto backstreet lies the extraordinary Kamogawa Diner. Running this unique establishment are a father-daughter duo who serve more than just mouth-watering feasts. The pair have reinvented themselves as 'food detectives', offering a service that goes beyond traditional dining. Through their culinary sleuthing, they reconstruct beloved dishes from the memories of their customers, creating a connection to cherished moments from the past. Among those who seek an appointment is a one-hit wonder pop star, finally ready to leave Tokyo and give up on her singing career. She wants to try the tempura that she once ate to celebrate her only successful record. Another diner is a budding Olympic swimmer, who desires the bento lunch box that his estranged father used to make him. The Kamogawa Diner doesn't just serve meals – it revives lost recipes and rekindles forgotten memories. It's a doorway to the past through the miracle of delicious food.

The Restaurant of Lost Recipes

""Creep is everything I want from a novel—it’s obsessive, it’s rapturous, it spirals into the most masochistic corners of the mind. A perfectly twisted debut.""—Anna Dorn, author of Perfume & Pain ""A chilling book by an exciting new voice.""—Vogue (UK) From a blistering new voice in dark literary fiction, an unsettling portrait of loneliness, obsession, and identity which asks: if a stranger was left alone in your house, how well could they truly get to know you—enough to fall in love with you? Alice and Tom are made for each other. Deeply connected, they share a flat in London, go to galleries together, enjoy the same books and wine. They even share a toothbrush. It’s all picture perfect. Except Alice and Tom have never met. Alice has been cleaning Tom’s apartment every Wednesday for a year. With every smudge wiped from his coffee cup, every multivitamin counted in the jar, Alice spirals deeper into infatuation, imagining a love so powerful it might erase a lifetime of self-hatred and loneliness. But as Alice prepares for the moment when she and Tom will finally meet face-to-face, she discovers that love might not be the cure she thought it was. Instead, the line between fantasy and reality becomes ever more blurred, shattering everything Alice thought she knew. Told in Alice’s compelling, deliciously acidic voice, Creep is a literary study of unreliability and unlikability. Exploring alienation, class, and race, it's a skilled debut with resonance in the way that we view women, mental health, and the lost in society.

Creep

Winter 2018-2019 Kids’ Indie Next List In a palace of illusions, nothing is what it seems. Each generation, a competition is held to find the next empress of Honoku. The rules are simple. Survive the palace’s enchanted seasonal rooms. Conquer Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Marry the prince. All are eligible to compete—all except yokai, supernatural monsters and spirits whom the human emperor is determined to enslave and destroy. Mari has spent a lifetime training to become empress. Winning should be easy. And it would be, if she weren't hiding a dangerous secret. Mari is a yokai with the ability to transform into a terrifying monster. If discovered, her life will be forfeit. As she struggles to keep her true identity hidden, Mari’s fate collides with that of Taro, the prince who has no desire to inherit the imperial throne, and Akira, a half-human, half-yokai outcast. Torn between duty and love, loyalty and betrayal, vengeance and forgiveness, the choices of Mari, Taro, and Akira will decide the fate of Honoku in this beautifully written, edge-of-your-seat YA fantasy.

Empress of All Seasons

Set between the last years of the “Chinese Windrush” in 1966 and Hong Kong’s Handover to China in 1997, a mysterious inheritance sees a young woman from London uncovering buried secrets in her late mother’s homeland in this captivating, wry debut about family, identity, and the price of belonging. Hong Kong, 1966. Sook-Yin is exiled from Kowloon to London with orders to restore honor to her family. But as she trains to become a nurse in cold and wet England, Sook-Yin realizes that, like so many transplants, she must carve out a destiny of her own to survive. Thirty years later in London, having lost her mother as a small child, biracial misfit Lily can only remember what Maya, her preternaturally perfect older sister, has told her about Sook-Yin. Unexpectedly named in the will of a powerful Chinese stranger, Lily embarks on a secret pilgrimage across the world to discover the lost side of her identity and claim the reward. But just as change is coming to Hong Kong, so Lily learns Maya’s secrecy about their past has deep roots, and that good fortune comes at a price. Heartfelt, wry and achingly real, Ghost Girl, Banana marks the stunning debut of a writer-to-watch.

Ghost Girl, Banana

Two sisters, two very different lives: the next edge-of-your-seat thriller by Sophie McKenzie, bestselling author of Girl Missing Asha has spent her life on an island community built on the principle of truth. But she discovers she has been lied to about something huge – a secret sister called Willow. Willow has always believed her twin sister died years ago. So when she receives a message in the middle of the night from a girl claiming to be Asha, she doesn’t know what to think. Can they piece together the truth about their pasts and find their way back to each other?

Secret Sister

Secrets and Lies are everywhere you look! And the storm is coming! The new teen thriller from Sophie McKenzie, the bestselling author of Girl Missing Hollie has spent her whole life on the quiet south coast. She's faced some tough challenges, but then who hasn't? When she and her best friend, Parker, start a research project on the local sea-wall defences, the last thing she expects is to uncover a trail of lies that lead her – and those she loves most – into terrible danger. Soon Hollie finds herself at the centre of a growing storm, where she must fight to save everything: her friends, her family and her life . . . Praise for Girl, Missing: 'Page-turning' The Independent 'Will have you gripped for hours' Sunday Express 'Please read this book: it is brilliant!; The Guardian 'Whenever I hear the phrase YA thriller I only ever think of one name - and that's Sophie Mckenzie. Why? Because noboody does it better' Phil Earle, award-winning author 'Sophie's thrillers are brilliant... you can't stop reading' Robert Muchamore, bestselling author 'Brilliantly described, scary and touching' The Daily Mirror 10 YEARS OF AWARDS FOR Girl, Missing Manchester Children's Book Awards Bolton Children's Book Award Soilhill Book Award Winner of the Sakura Medal Red House Children's Book Award Richard and Judy Best Kids' Book Lewisham Children's Book Award

Storm of Lies

For fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, What You Are Looking for Is In the Library, and Days at the Morisaki Bookshop comes an enchanting novel that will linger in your heart long after the last page is turned.As the last petal falls, the final page is turned… Welcome to The Cherry Blossom Bookshop, a haven for book lovers that only appears during the fleeting cherry blossom season. Nestled amidst the bloom of delicate petals, you’ll find a sanctuary for those burdened by regrets and past sorrows. Here, Sakura, the mysterious young owner, and her wise calico cat, Kobako, patiently await the arrival of souls in need of solace and healing. Told over four seasons, each visitor to the bookshop holds a book that bridges their past and present, guiding them towards understanding and acceptance. Within the antique charm of the shop and the soothing aroma of freshly brewed coffee, Sakura and Kobako help their guests confront their lingering sadness through the power of stories, enabling them to move forward with renewed hope.

The Vanishing Cherry Blossom Bookshop

When lies are everywhere, how far will you go for the truth? A tense eco-drama with an explosive twist from the million-copy selling author of Girl, Missing. Fourteen-year-old Maya cannot believe she has to spend the summer with her grandmother, helping out at the family cosmetics firm. But things get much more exciting when she meets a community of activists who are campaigning against the dumping of chemical waste. Getting closer to one boy in particular, Bear, Maya is dared into joining one of their protest missions, but doesn't know that her grandmother's business is the target. Someone has been lying about their environmentally-friendly products, and as danger threatens, Maya must uncover the truth or betray her family forever. In this edge-of-your-seat drama exploring the line between truth and lies, join millions of listeners in discovering bestselling teen thrillers from Sophie McKenzie. 'Sophie’s thrillers are in a league of their own – nobody does it better' Phil Earle, author of When the Sky Falls

Truth or Dare

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