Hooked

Eriko really wouldn’t mind being savaged, if it was her best friend doing the savaging…

Eriko’s life appears perfect – devoted parents, pristine apartment and a high-flying 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 by a popular blog written by a housewife, Shõko. Shõko’s posts about eating convenience-store food and her untidy home are the opposite of the typical Japanese housewife’s manicured lifestyle. When Eriko tracks Shõko down at her favorite restaurant and befriends her, Shõko is at first charmed by her new companion. But soon Eriko’s obsession with Shõko begins to spiral out of control, threatening her carefully laid plans. How far will she go to hold on to the best friend she’s ever had?

Beautifully translated by Polly Barton, “Hooked” is an unsettling story of the line between friendship and dangerous obsession, and a delicious exploration of flood, loneliness and womanhood in contemporary Japan.