Must Have Hooked

Author: Yuzuki, Asako

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Published on 12 March 2026 by HarperCollins Publishers (Fourth Estate Ltd) in the United Kingdom.

Paperback / softback | 400 pages
216 x 135 | 270g

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, we’re 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 wouldn’t mind being savaged, if it was her best friend doing the savaging

Eriko’s life appears perfect devoted parents, spotless apartment and a 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, Shoko. Shokos posts about eating convenience store food and her untidy home are the opposite of the typical Japanese housewifes manicured lifestyle. When Eriko tracks Shoko down at her favourite restaurant and befriends her, Shoko is at first charmed by her new companion. But as Erikos obsession with Shoko 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