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

Amelie, 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 Amelie, 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