Book Review

Intimacies by Katie Kitamura
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A young woman serving as an interpreter at the International Court in The Hague is driven by a desire for understanding and connection, yet finds her professional expertise in flawless translation starkly at odds with her inability to translate the meaning of her own experiences.

One example is her troubled relationship with Adriaan, a divorced man whose unpredictable behavior leaves her searching for answers. When he unexpectedly disappears for over a month after saying he would visit his ex-wife and children in Lisbon for only a few days, she is left struggling to understand his motives and her own emotional response.

Ultimately, Intimacies portrays a woman whose relationships are shaped by an intensely introverted perspective, even when the circumstances of her life call for greater assertiveness. Her search for a place to call home becomes the novel’s central quest. Yet the decisions she ultimately makes are guided less by strong convictions, memories, or desires than by uncertainty and chance. In the end, her choice is determined not by her ambitions or dreams, but by the unexpected reappearance of a man she never truly knew.

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