Intimacies

Written in 2021 by Japanese American author Katie Kitamura, Intimacies explores the complicated nature of love and secrecy and examines the blurred boundaries that define human connections. The novel follows an unnamed narrator whose job as a language interpreter for the World Court in The Hague draws her into an intricate web of moral ambiguities within the diplomatic world. At the same time, she must navigate the psychological impact of grief and personal entanglements. The novel was longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award and PEN/Faulkner Award and was a finalist for the Joyce Carol Oates Award. The novel also made President Barack Obama’s summer reading list in 2021 and was listed as one of The New York Times’s Book Review’s “10 Best Books of 2021.”

Kitamura’s previous novel, A Separation, also featuring an unnamed narrator, was a finalist for the Premio Gregor von Rezzori and a New York Times Notable Book in 2017. Translated into 16 different languages, A Separation was widely acknowledged as one of the year's best books and was adapted into a screenplay. Additionally, two of her other works, Gone to the Forest and The Longshot, were awarded the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award.