Audition

Audition by Katie Kitamura is a precisely observed, psychologically intense novel about the performance of identity — a middle-aged actor navigating a strange period in her career and her marriage as the boundaries between self and role begin to blur in unsettling ways. Kitamura, whose previous novels A Separation and Intimacies established her as one of the most intelligent voices in contemporary fiction, brings her characteristic cool, analytical prose to questions about authenticity, aging, and the strange experience of performing emotions you can no longer quite access. Published by Vintage, Audition confirms Kitamura’s position among the essential writers of her generation — a novelist whose intelligence and restraint produce effects that are quietly devastating.