Intimacies

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2021 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION
NATIONAL BESTSELLER

ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE SUMMER READS

‘One of the best novels I’ve read in 2021.’ - Dwight Garner, The New York Times

‘A perfect novel–taut and seductive.’ –Brandon Taylor, author of Real Life and Filthy Animals

’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

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.