Intimacies: A New York Times Top 10 Book of 2021

Katie Kitamura

Aug 2021 · Random House

About this ebook

**AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4**

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.

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

'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

Ratings and reviews

It's a story delivered in a quite flat first person monotone. A young woman is in The Hague, a strange city, working as an interpreter for the International court. Some of the passages about the intricacies of interpretation are quite fascinating. But the woman' life has a flatness and it's not much of a story.

About the author

Katie Kitamura's most recent novel, A Separation, was a finalist for the Premio von Rezzori and a New York Times Notable Book. It was named a best book of the year by over a dozen publications, translated into 16 languages, and is being adapted for film. 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, Kitamura has written for publications including the New York Times Book Review, Guardian, BOMB, and Triple Canopy. She teaches in the Creative Writing Program at New York University.