Fear and Trembling

'Ingenious . . . With great delicacy, Nothomb updates the age-old divide between East and West in this delectable little book.' O, The Oprah Magazine

Amélie, a well-intentioned and eager young westerner, goes to Japan to spend a year working at the Yumimoto Corporation. Returning to the land where she was born is the fulfilment of a dream for Amélie, but once there her working life quickly becomes a comic nightmare of terror and self-abasement. Disturbing, hilarious and totally convincing, Fear and Trembling displays an elegant and shrewd understanding of the intricate ways in which Japanese relationships are made and spoiled.

'A vituperatively funny attack on an alien culture.' Daily Telegraph

'Nothomb is the latest enfant terrible of French letters - she has an acidic yet passionately romantic view of human nature.' Elle

'A scathingly funny novella.' Newsday

Belgian by nationality, Amelie Nothomb was born in Kobe, Japan, and currently lives in Paris. Described by Time Magazine as 'prolific and ingenious', she is the best-selling author of thirteen novels, translated into thirty languages. Fear and Trembling won the Grand Prix of the Academie Francaise and the Prix Internet du Livre. The Book of Proper Names was originally published in France, as Robert Des Noms Propres, where it has sold over 250,000 copies.