A review by readbyryan
Intimacies by Katie Kitamura

dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

“It is surprisingly easy to forget what you have witnessed, the horrifying image or the voice speaking the unspeakable, in order to exist in the world we must and we do forget, we live in a state of I know but I do not know.”

The unnamed main character of INTIMACIES is a woman working as an interpreter at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. After starting a relationship with a man, she learns he’s married but separated, all while working on a high profile case at the court. She is forced to decide what to do with her life.

Intimacies is a quiet, but powerful book of literary fiction that explores a women at a turning point in her life. Aimless, yet competent, she finds herself in a very difficult job listening to testimony of horrific crimes and repeating them back in another language. Her only friend in The Hague is Jana. She’s seeing a married man who steps back to deal with his family. This book is not plot driven but an examination of a character at a point in her life.

I loved the writing in this novel. The sentences are strung together beautifully to say so much without pages and pages of prose. This book is almost more about what’s between the lines than what’s on the page. I found it readable and engaging and I highly recommend it. I didn’t love the ending and I thought it was a bit inconsistent with the rest of the book. I think this would make for a great book club discussion.▪️