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Intimacies

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Intimacies
AuthorKatie Kitamura
LanguageEnglish
PublisherRiverhead Books
Publication date
July 20, 2021 (2021-07-20)
Pages240
ISBN978-0-39957-616-4

Intimacies is the fourth novel by Katie Kitamura, published on July 20, 2021.

Plot

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An unnamed woman leaves New York City, where her father recently died, and moves to The Hague, Netherlands to work as an interpreter at the International Criminal Court. The woman is assigned to interpret for the former president of a West African country on trial for war crimes.

Creation

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Kitamura attended the International Criminal Court trial of Laurent Gbagbo, a fictionalized account of which appears in Intimacies.[1] The publishing rights were acquired by Jonathan Cape in February 2021.[2]

Reception

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Intimacies featured on a list of book recommendations by Barack Obama for the summer of 2021.[3] Dwight Garner described the book as "a taut, moody novel that moves purposefully between worlds" in his review for The New York Times.[4] Ron Charles reviewed the book for the Washington Post.[5] Brandon Yu compared the work favourably to Kitamura's third novel A Separation.[6] In 2021, Intimacies was longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction.[7] It was selected for the New York Times Book Review's "10 Best Books of 2021" list.[8]

References

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  1. ^ Young, Molly (July 12, 2021). "Katie Kitamura's hypnotic new novel asks, What happens when your main character is a passive witness to her own life?". Vulture. Archived from the original on July 13, 2021. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
  2. ^ Cowdrey, Katherine (February 9, 2021). "Kitamura's Intimacies to Jonathan Cape". The Bookseller. Archived from the original on February 9, 2021. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
  3. ^ Bayley, Sian (July 12, 2021). "Obama shares summer reading list featuring Diop and Ishiguro". The Bookseller. Archived from the original on July 12, 2021. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
  4. ^ Garner, Dwight (July 14, 2021). "'Intimacies,' a Coolly Written Novel About the Arts of Translation and Power". The New York Times. ISSN 1553-8095. OCLC 1645522. Archived from the original on July 15, 2021. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
  5. ^ Charles, Ron (July 13, 2021). "Barack Obama's summer reading pick 'Intimacies' is an unsettling novel about moral dilemmas". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 15, 2021. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
  6. ^ Yu, Brandon (July 11, 2021). "Katie Kitamura and the Cognitive Dissonance of Being Alive Right Now". The New York Times. ISSN 1553-8095. OCLC 1645522. Archived from the original on July 15, 2021. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
  7. ^ "The 2021 National Book Awards Longlist: Fiction". The New Yorker. 2021-09-17.
  8. ^ "The 10 Best Books of 2021". The New York Times. November 30, 2021. Retrieved December 18, 2021.