Katie Kitamura

Born in 1979 in Cal­i­for­nia, Katie Kita­mu­ra now lives in Brook­lyn. Her first two nov­els, “The Long­shot” (2009) and “Gone to the For­est” (2013), were final­ists for the New York Pub­lic Library’s Young Lions Fic­tion Award. In 2017, “A Sep­a­ra­tion,” her first nov­el trans­lat­ed into French, was pub­lished by Stock. “Inti­ma­cies,” a best-sell­er in the Unit­ed States, was long-list­ed for the 2021 Nation­al Book Award, and appeared on Barack Obama’s Sum­mer Read­ing List. Katie Kita­mu­ra cur­rent­ly teach­es writ­ing at NYU.

Katie’s Nar­ra­tor

Kita­mu­ra observes the world with­out delud­ing her­self. Her nar­ra­tor lives alone in The Hague, an inter­preter for “the Court,” which the read­er imag­ines as the Inter­na­tion­al Crim­i­nal Court, where war crim­i­nals face judg­ment. Her best friend lives in a seedy area under­go­ing gen­tri­fi­ca­tion, her lover turns out to be mar­ried and the father of two chil­dren. She wit­ness­es the tri­al of an ex-pres­i­dent, and the accused is seduc­tive. Every­thing is told with pre­ci­sion, her lan­guage has no illu­sions. That’s where her pow­er lies, in her lucid obser­va­tion of a world that isn’t.

Colombe Sch­neck for « Madame Figaro »