A NEW YORK TIMES TOP 10 BOOK OF 2021 LONGLISTED FOR THE 2021 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE 2021 READS AN INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER A BEST BOOK OF 2021 FROM Washington Post, Vogue, Time, Oprah Daily, New York Times “Intimacies is a haunting, precise, and morally astute novel that reads like a psychological thriller…. Katie Kitamura is a wonder.” —Dana Spiotta, author of Wayward and Eat the Document “One of the best novels I’ve read in 2021.” – Dwight Garner, The New York Times A novel from the author of A Separation, an electrifying story about a woman caught between many truths. An interpreter has come to The Hague to escape New York and work at the International Court. A woman of many languages and identities, she is looking for a place to finally call home. She's drawn into simmering personal dramas: her lover, Adriaan, is separated from his wife but still entangled in his marriage. Her friend Jana witnesses a seemingly random act of violence, a crime the interpreter becomes increasingly obsessed with as she befriends the victim's sister. And she's pulled into an explosive political controversy when she’s asked to interpret for a former president accused of war crimes. A woman of quiet passion, she confronts power, love, and violence, both in her personal intimacies and in her work at the Court. She is soon pushed to the precipice, where betrayal and heartbreak threaten to overwhelm her, forcing her to decide what she wants from her life.
Download and start listening now!
“[A] thriller of a novel…In exploring how one’s proximity to power and violence…Kitamura interrogates how our intimacies can change the course of our lives.”
— Time
“A taut, moody novel that moves purposefully between worlds.”
— New York Times“Spare, diamond-cut prose…reveals the pretty lies we tell about community and morality.”
— Oprah Daily“A master of cool disquiet…Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized.”
— Vogue“The interpreter recognizes how familiarity can obscure intimacy, while its lack can yet lead to discomfiting proximity.”
— Booklist (starred review)Be the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Katie Kitamura is an award-winning author of several novels, including A Separation, which was a New York Times Notable Book and a finalist for the Premio Gregor von Rezzori. It was named a best book of the year by over a dozen publications and translated into sixteen languages. Her two previous novels, Gone to the Forest and The Longshot, were both finalists for the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award. A recipient of fellowships from the Lannan Foundation and Santa Maddalena Foundation, she has written for publications including the New York Times, London Guardian, Granta, Bomb Magazine, Triple Canopy, and Frieze. She teaches in the creative writing program at New York University.