Audition: A Novel

FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE
FINALIST FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE
LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE AND THE CAROL SHIELDS PRIZE FOR FICTION
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY BARACK OBAMA, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE NEW YORKER, NPR, THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY, VOGUE, TIME MAGAZINE, MARIE CLAIRE, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE GUARDIAN AND MORE!
“A tightly wound family drama that reads like a psychological thriller."—NPR
One woman, the performance of a lifetime. Or two. An exhilarating, destabilizing Möbius strip of a 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.
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Community Reviews
This very much reads in the 'art imitating life, life immitating art' vein....what if the greatest role an actor will ever play in their life is their own? The one where the lines are always fluid, subject to change, the scenes suspended and incomplete, the cast members unpredictable, the audience overly gullible and the author of your play unreliable...it is cerebral, it is propulsive...it is meaningful and baseless, I completely appreciate why this was shortlisted for the Booker - it is strange and seductive...
I loved this and would have finished reading it in one sitting except sleep called me at 2 am! Beautifully written. Thought-provoking. It left me with my thoughts swirling, and a desire to pick up the pieces of the novel and arrange them into a coherent whole. I will be ordering her previous novels, as her prose was like nectar to me. Good luck with the Booker Prize, Katie - I can easily see why your book has been longlisted.
Beautiful thoughtful writing. The choice of every word has meaning. Without spoilers, I'll say there are many ways the events can be interpreted. My opinion is that the author intentionally wanted a book that is like an optical illusion. You know, the one that is either a young woman with a choker or an old woman without teeth. You can stake claim and say it's definitively one or the other or you can let it be both/and.
The book feels like a master class in character interiority. Though it is short and can be read quickly, I urge you to read it slowly. Really spend time with the thoughts the narrator has as she navigates the spaces.
Black Swan meets Teorema by way of Certified Copy. Every chapter felt more asinine than the last.
Reading this book felt to me like walking through dull waters thick with disease and decay, and left me with a horrible aftertaste.
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