A 2021 pick for Barack Obama and the New York Times, Intimacies is a dazzling exploration of truth and power 'An incredible writer' Natalie Portman 'One of my favourite novels of the past few years' Caleb Azumah Nelson 'Captivating' Elif Shafak 'Charged with tension and power' Avni Doshi 'Simply stunning' Brandon Taylor 'Gorgeous' Raven Leilani An interpreter has come to The Hague to escape New York and work at the International Court. 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. 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. One of Barack Obama's Favourite 2021 Reads A New York Times Top 10 Book of 2021

Details

ISBN13: 9781529112078
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 240
Edition:
Publication Date: 02 Aug 2022
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
Publication City, Country: London, United Kingdom
Dimensions (cm): 19.7(H)x12.9(L)x1.5(W)174
Weight (gm): 174

Author Biography

Katie Kitamura's most recent novel is Intimacies. One of the New York Times' 10 Best Books of 2021, it was longlisted for the National Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award and was a finalist for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize. It was also one of Barack Obama's favourite books of 2021. In France, it won the Prix Litteraire Lucien Barriere, was a finalist for the Grand Prix de l'Heroine, and was nominated for the Prix Fragonard. Her previous novel, A Separation, was a finalist for the Premio von Rezzori and a New York Times Notable Book. A recipient of the Rome Prize in Literature, her work has been translated into over 20 languages and is being adapted for film and television. Her work has been translated into 21 languages and is being adapted for film and television. She is a recipient of the Rome Prize in Literature, as well as fellowships from the Lannan, Santa Maddalena and Jan Michalski foundations. Kitamura has written for publications including the New York Times Book Review, the Guardian, Granta, frieze and others. She teaches in the creative writing program at New York University.

Reviews

Intimacies is a novel about the ruthlessness of power, the check of virtue, and the purportedly neutral bureaucracy meant to mediate between them. Katie Kitamura is among the most brilliant and profound writers at work today; she reminds me how high the moral stakes of fiction can be. * Garth Greenwell *
The thrill of Intimacies is in the taut precision of its language, which rings and hums off the page. It's forensic and inquiring, but also bright and alive. You forget to breathe while reading it, and feel with each crafted sentence, each building thought, that you're in the company of a magnificent writer. * Samantha Harvey *
Katie Kitamura writes about being an outsider like no other author. Quiet moments are charged with tension and power. In short, the book is remarkable - beautifully written and intelligent. * Avni Doshi *
Intimacies is a perfect novel-taut and seductive. Kitamura has made the existential thriller all her own, and she effortlessly negotiates the personal and the geopolitical with a complex moral nuance. Simply stunning. * Brandon Taylor *
Katie Kitamura's Intimacies - she's an incredible writer. It's fiction and a really beautiful exploration of how we can live everyday life while complete horrors and atrocities are happening in the world - how both things coexist. -- Natalie Portman * Vogue *
Saturated with enigmatic longing, Intimacies peels back the layers of sympathy, antipathy, and morality that both connect and divide us from others, unearthing something precious beneath. Katie Kitamura is a revelatory interpreter of the human heart, in all its brilliance and obscurity. * Alexandra Kleeman *
A haunting, precise, and morally astute novel that reads like a psychological thriller. Katie Kitamura is a wonder; her work is striking, stylish, and fully realized. -- Dana Spiotta
Katie Kitamura's beautifully wrought new novel is tense and suspenseful, a mystery about human choices. Like a work by Graham Greene, Intimacies kept me in its tight grip. * Lynne Tillman *
Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. * Vogue *Best Books to Read in 2021* *
Katie Kitamura's voice - spare, electric, evocative - could take me anywhere. Especially into this landscape of global wanderers, uprooted women, fragmented souls. Intimacies is a singular pleasure - a dangerous, seductive, dagger of a novel. * Danzy Senna *