Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022--San Antonio
Intimacies by Katie Kitamura is a short novel that was on the long list for the National Book Award in 2021. It takes place at the United Nations' International Criminal Court (which I have visited with a friend who worked there) in The Hague. It's the story of a woman who has taken a one-year appointment as an interpreter at the court to see if she will like the job and the city--if it can become her permanent home. Her father is deceased and her mother has moved to Singapore. She has never had a "home" city and New York where she has been living is too expensive and her work there is not satisfying nor lucrative enough for her to remain. The novel covers her whole year in which she makes a few friends, proves herself capable of performing the job, becomes very involved in both the trail of and as a personal translator to an African President accused of crimes against humanity, and falls in love with a married man who is separated from his wife who has taken their two children and moved to Lisbon. The book deals with the intimacies involved in all these relationships--with friends, with colleagues, with work clients, with her relationship partner--and the strains that are a natural part of being intimate with such persons within one's life. It's a good book. I rated it 4 stars out of 5.
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