AN idealistic young Belgian woman who speaks fluent Japanese travels to the country she has always dreamed about, determined to find a job.

She lands work as a translator with the Yumimoto Corporation, one of Tokyo's biggest import-export firms. But once there she falls foul of the incomprehensible rules and subtle machinations of the Japanese business world, and her working life quickly descends into a comic nightmare of misunderstanding, humiliation and self-abasement.

Bewildered by layer upon layer of protocol and caught up in an unwinnable battle of wills with her beautiful and inscrutable superior Miss Mori, she finds herself trapped in a steady and humiliating decline from translator to coffee-maker to toilet attendant.

Brilliantly written, laced with cruel wit, horribly convincing in its understanding of the intricate ways in which Japanese relationships are made and spoiled, and ultimately very moving, Fear And Trembling is a comic delight which kept me reading until 4am and I had finished the book in one sitting. Utterly addictive.

Updated: 10:10 Wednesday, August 25, 2004