Faber & Faber, London 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