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Staff Pick
I finished A Separation in a single Saturday afternoon marathon session. It’s a book that packs a serious literary punch, yet has the fun propulsive flow of a thriller. The story and the setting will immediately suck you in and afterwards leave you thinking, What the hell just happened! I have no doubt that this will be the big breakout book for Katie Kitamura. Recommended By Shawn D., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
A mesmerizing, psychologically taut novel about a marriage's end and the secrets we all carry.
A young woman has agreed with her faithless husband: it's time for them to separate. For the moment it's a private matter, a secret between the two of them. As she begins her new life, she gets word that Christopher has gone missing in a remote region in the rugged south of Greece; she reluctantly agrees to go and search for him, still keeping their split to herself. In her heart, she's not even sure if she wants to find him. Adrift in the wild landscape, she traces the disintegration of their relationship, and discovers she understands less than she thought about the man she used to love.
A story of intimacy and infidelity, A Separation is about the gulf that divides us from the lives of others and the narratives we create for ourselves. As the narrator reflects upon her love for a man who may never have been what he appeared, Kitamura propels us into the experience of a woman on the brink of catastrophe. A Separation is a riveting stylistic masterpiece of absence and presence that will leave the reader astonished, and transfixed.
Review
"Kitamura weaves a novel of quiet power, mostly due to a narrative voice that is so subtly commanding — so effortlessly self-aware and perceptive, teeming with dry yet empathetic humor — that it’s a challenge not to follow her journey in a single sitting." Harper’s Bazaar
Review
"Kitamura is a writer with a visionary, visual imagination… In A Separation, [she] has made consciousness her territory. The book is all mind, and an observant, taut, astringent mind it is." The New Yorker
Review
"Kitamura’s prose gallops, combining Elena Ferrante-style intricacies with the tensions of a top-notch whodunit." Elle
About the Author
Katie Kitamura is a critic and novelist living in New York City. She is the author of Gone to the Forest and The Longshot, both of which were finalists for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award. A recipient of a Lannan Residency Fellowship, Kitamura has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, Granta, BOMB, Triple Canopy, and is a regular contributor to Frieze.