Audition
One woman, the performance of a lifetime. Or two. An exhilarating, destabilising novel that asks whether we ever really know the people we love
Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She’s an accomplished actress in rehearsals for an upcoming premiere. He’s attractive, troubling, young – young enough to be her son. Who is he to her, and who is she to him? In this compulsively readable, brilliantly constructed novel, two competing narratives unspool, rewriting our understanding of the roles we play every day – partner, parent, creator, muse – and the truths every performance masks, especially from those who think they know us most intimately.
Taut and hypnotic, Audition is Katie Kitamura at her virtuosic best. Review Kitamura’s great talent is describing the minutiae of human connections, how in the course of seconds an interaction can provoke sympathy, then irritation, followed by confusion. She can turn a single exchange into a symphony of implications ― The Times
Kitamura is unparalleled . . . Always engaging and thought-provoking . . . Audition is a lightning bolt of a novel ― Financial Times
Katie Kitamura’s latest novel, Audition, is slick, sharp, strange and singular. I love her work; she’s a writer who can conjure intrigue from the scantest detail, and you’ll gulp this novel down in one in-breath -- Samantha Harvey, Booker Prize-winning author of ORBITAL ― Guardian, *Summer Reads of 2025*
Kitamura's novels are short, sharp and deadly. I’m not sure there’s anyone better writing in America today -- Alex Preston ― Observer
A literary performance of true uncanniness: one that, in a very real sense, takes on life ― Guardian
Audition has powerful things to say about our present destabilised society . . . This superb, thoughtful novel resonated long after finishing ― Independent
A quiet novel about the ways we hide our true selves from others – and ourselves -- Barack Obama
Kitamura is always worth reading ― Evening Standard
Kitamura is totally in control of her prodigious gifts. Her confluence of style and ruthless intelligence is so distinctive that it feels almost like its own genre. Whether she remains in the terrain she has established or not, we are lucky to read her ― New Statesman
A daring, riddling novel . . . A literary hall of mirrors that explores the deepest questions about performance, identity and how we relate to each other ― Guardian, *Summer Reads of 2025* About the Author 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.
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