Editing Asako Yuzuki

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    <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #cee0f2; text-align: center; font-weight: bold; font-size: 110%; padding: 6px;">Asako Yuzuki</td>
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    <td colspan="2" style="text-align: center; padding: 6px; font-style: italic; border-bottom: 1px solid #a2a9b1;">柚木 麻子</td>
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    <td style="padding: 4px 6px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top; width: 40%;">Born</td>
    <td style="padding: 4px 6px;">August 2, 1981<br/>Tokyo, Japan</td>
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    <td style="padding: 4px 6px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">Occupation</td>
    <td style="padding: 4px 6px;">Novelist</td>
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    <td style="padding: 4px 6px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">Language</td>
    <td style="padding: 4px 6px;">Japanese</td>
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    <td style="padding: 4px 6px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">Nationality</td>
    <td style="padding: 4px 6px;">Japanese</td>
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    <td style="padding: 4px 6px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">Education</td>
    <td style="padding: 4px 6px;">Rikkyo University (French literature)</td>
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    <td style="padding: 4px 6px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">Notable works</td>
    <td style="padding: 4px 6px;">''Butter''; ''Hooked: A Novel of Obsession''</td>
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    <td style="padding: 4px 6px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">Notable awards</td>
    <td style="padding: 4px 6px;">All Yomimono Prize for New Writers (2008)<br/>Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize (2015)<br/>Waterstones Book of the Year (2024)<br/>British Book Awards Debut Fiction (2025)</td>
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'''Asako Yuzuki''' (柚木 麻子, ''Yuzuki Asako''; born August 2, 1981) is a Japanese novelist. She is best known internationally for ''[[Butter (Yuzuki novel)|Butter]]'' (2017), whose 2024 English translation by [[Polly Barton]] became an international bestseller, was named Waterstones Book of the Year 2024, and won the British Book Awards 2025 Debut Fiction Award. Her novel ''Nairu pāchi no joshikai'' (ナイルパーチの女子会, 2015), translated into English as ''[[Hooked: A Novel of Obsession]]'' (2026), won the 28th Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize. She has been nominated multiple times for the Naoki Prize, and several of her novels have been adapted for television, radio, and film.

==Life==

Yuzuki was born in Tokyo on August 2, 1981. During her early school years she was an avid reader of translated fiction, including Beverly Cleary's Ramona series, ''Anne of Green Gables'', and the young adult novels of Judy Blume. While in junior high school she experienced a serious illness, and during her recovery she read ''Kitchen'' by Banana Yoshimoto, an encounter she has credited with redirecting her toward Japanese literature.

She later attended Rikkyo University, where she studied French literature. Her senior thesis was on Honoré de Balzac. After graduating she took a position at a confectionery company, but eventually left to pursue writing full time.

==Career==

===Early work and debut===

In 2008 Yuzuki won the 88th All Yomimono Prize for New Writers for the short story "Forget Me, Not Blue", a story set in a Protestant all-girls school in Tokyo dealing with themes of bullying and female social dynamics. The story was first published in the literary magazine ''All Yomimono'' and later collected with three other connected stories into the volume ''Shūten no ano ko'' (終点のあの子, ''That Girl at the End of the Line''), published in 2010 as her debut book.

In 2011 her novel ''Nageki no bijo'' (嘆きの美女, ''Lamenting Beauty''), about a woman who becomes frustrated with the prevalence of attractive people online and attempts to vandalize a beauty website, was published by Asahi Shimbun. It was subsequently adapted into an NHK BS Premium television comedy series starring Akiko Yada.

===Breakthrough and Naoki Prize nominations===

Yuzuki published several novels in 2013, including ''Ōhi no kikan'' (王妃の帰還, ''Return of the Queen''), ''Ranchi no Akko-chan'' (ランチのアッコちゃん), and ''Itō-kun A to E'' (伊藤くん A to E), a series of linked short stories about different women each involved with the same man. ''Itō-kun A to E'' received Yuzuki's first nomination for the Naoki Prize (150th). It was later adapted into the 2017 romantic comedy television series ''The Many Faces of Ito'', starring Fumino Kimura and directed by Ryūichi Hiroki, and a theatrical film version was also released.

Her 2014 novel ''Honya-san no Daiana'' (本屋さんのダイアナ, ''Diana the Book Clerk''), published by Shinchosha, chronicles a years-long friendship between two girls from different backgrounds and received her second Naoki Prize nomination (151st).

In 2015 Yuzuki published ''Nairu pāchi no joshikai'' (ナイルパーチの女子会) through Bungeishunjū. The novel, a story about two women whose lives intersect as one blackmails the other, won the 28th Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize and received a third Naoki Prize nomination (153rd).

===''Butter'' and international recognition===

In 2017 Yuzuki published ''BUTTER'', a novel loosely inspired by the real-life case of Kanae Kijima, a woman convicted of luring and murdering middle-aged men. The novel's protagonist is a journalist investigating a female suspect accused of seducing men with her cooking. ''BUTTER'' received Yuzuki's fourth Naoki Prize nomination (157th).

When ''Butter'' was translated into English by Polly Barton and published in 2024, it became an international sensation. It reached bestseller lists in the United Kingdom and United States, was named Waterstones Book of the Year 2024, and won the British Book Awards 2025 Debut Fiction Award in the translated fiction category. The novel was widely praised for its intertwining of food, feminism, and psychological suspense, and drew comparisons to the work of Patricia Highsmith and Ruth Rendell.

===''Hooked'' in English translation===

The English translation of ''Nairu pāchi no joshikai'', published as ''Hooked: A Novel of Obsession'' and again translated by Polly Barton, was released on March 17, 2026, by Ecco/HarperCollins in the United States and 4th Estate in the United Kingdom. Though an earlier novel than ''Butter'', it reached English-language readers as Yuzuki's second translated work. It was named a most anticipated book of 2026 by ''The New York Times'', ''The Guardian'', ''Forbes'', ''Oprah Daily'', ''Lit Hub'', and ''Publishers Weekly''.

==Themes and style==

Yuzuki's fiction consistently centres on women navigating the social, professional, and intimate pressures of contemporary Japanese life. Recurring concerns include female loneliness and the difficulty of sustaining female friendship; the impossible and contradictory demands placed on women by family, workplace, and society; food as a site of power, pleasure, and control; and the ways in which desire and admiration can curdle into obsession. Her prose is characteristically calm and precise, building psychological tension through accumulation and close observation of everyday detail rather than overt dramatic incident. Critics have frequently situated her work alongside that of Sayaka Murata and Banana Yoshimoto, noting a shared preoccupation with social conformity and interior life.

Her academic grounding in French literature — and in Balzac in particular — is often cited as an influence on her interest in social stratification and the tension between individual desire and societal expectation.

==Works==

===Novels and story collections (Japanese)===

{| style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%; font-size: 95%;"
|- style="background-color: #cee0f2; font-weight: bold;"
! style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1; text-align: left;" | Year
! style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1; text-align: left;" | Japanese title
! style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1; text-align: left;" | Romanization
! style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1; text-align: left;" | Notes
|-
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | 2010
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | 終点のあの子
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | ''Shūten no ano ko''
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | Debut collection; includes "Forget Me, Not Blue" (All Yomimono Prize, 2008)
|- style="background-color: #eaecf0;"
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | 2011
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | 嘆きの美女
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | ''Nageki no bijo''
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | Adapted for NHK BS Premium television
|-
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | 2013
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | 王妃の帰還
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | ''Ōhi no kikan''
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" |
|- style="background-color: #eaecf0;"
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | 2013
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | ランチのアッコちゃん
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | ''Ranchi no Akko-chan''
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" |
|-
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | 2013
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | 伊藤くん A to E
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | ''Itō-kun A to E''
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | Naoki Prize nomination (150th); adapted for television and film
|- style="background-color: #eaecf0;"
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | 2014
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | 本屋さんのダイアナ
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | ''Honya-san no Daiana''
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | Naoki Prize nomination (151st)
|-
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | 2015
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | ナイルパーチの女子会
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | ''Nairu pāchi no joshikai''
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize (28th); Naoki Prize nomination (153rd); translated as ''Hooked'' (2026)
|- style="background-color: #eaecf0;"
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | 2017
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | バター
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | ''BUTTER''
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | Naoki Prize nomination (157th); translated as ''Butter'' (2024)
|}

===Works in English translation===

{| style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%; font-size: 95%;"
|- style="background-color: #cee0f2; font-weight: bold;"
! style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1; text-align: left;" | Year
! style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1; text-align: left;" | English title
! style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1; text-align: left;" | Translator
! style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1; text-align: left;" | Publisher
|-
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | 2024
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | ''[[Butter (Yuzuki novel)|Butter]]''
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | Polly Barton
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | Ecco / HarperCollins (US); 4th Estate (UK)
|- style="background-color: #eaecf0;"
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | 2026
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | ''[[Hooked: A Novel of Obsession]]''
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | Polly Barton
| style="padding: 4px 8px; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" | Ecco / HarperCollins (US); 4th Estate (UK)
|}

==Awards and honours==

* '''All Yomimono Prize for New Writers''' (88th, 2008) — Won, for "Forget Me, Not Blue"
* '''Naoki Prize''' (150th, 2013) — Nominated, for ''Itō-kun A to E''
* '''Naoki Prize''' (151st, 2014) — Nominated, for ''Honya-san no Daiana''
* '''Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize''' (28th, 2015) — Won, for ''Nairu pāchi no joshikai''
* '''Naoki Prize''' (153rd, 2015) — Nominated, for ''Nairu pāchi no joshikai''
* '''Naoki Prize''' (157th, 2017) — Nominated, for ''BUTTER''
* '''Waterstones Book of the Year''' (2024) — Won, for the English translation of ''Butter''
* '''British Book Awards, Debut Fiction Award''' (2025) — Won, for the English translation of ''Butter''

==See also==

* [[Butter (Yuzuki novel)]]
* [[Hooked: A Novel of Obsession]]
* [[Polly Barton]]
* [[Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize]]
* [[Naoki Prize]]
* [[Japanese literature in translation]]
* [[Banana Yoshimoto]]
* [[Sayaka Murata]]

==References==

{{Reflist}}

==External links==

* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asako_Yuzuki Asako Yuzuki] at Wikipedia
* [https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/Asako_Yuzuki Asako Yuzuki] at Goodreads
* [https://bookmarks.reviews/reviews/hooked-a-novel-of-obsession/ Reviews of ''Hooked''] at Book Marks

[[Category:1981 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Japanese women novelists]]
[[Category:Writers from Tokyo]]
[[Category:Rikkyo University alumni]]
[[Category:Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize winners]]
[[Category:21st-century Japanese novelists]]
[[Category:Japanese novelists]]