WHAT I'M READING NOW: Audition by Katie Kitamura

I’m currently reading Audition by Katie Kitamura, and the best way I can describe the experience is that it feels quiet on the surface, but deeply unsettling underneath.

There’s something about Kitamura’s writing that makes me feel like I’m being asked to pay attention to the smallest shifts — a pause, a look, the way someone answers a question without really answering it. Nothing feels overly explained, and I love that. The book trusts the reader. It creates this strange, elegant tension where you’re not only wondering what is happening, but whether anyone in the room is being fully honest, even with themselves.

What I’m responding to most so far is the way the novel thinks about performance. Not just acting on a stage, but the performances we all give in daily life: as mothers, partners, professionals, friends, women who are expected to know who we are at all times. Reading it, I keep thinking about how much of adulthood is improvisation dressed up as certainty.

It’s not a loud book. It doesn’t pull you in with drama. It pulls you in with atmosphere, restraint, and the uncomfortable feeling that something essential is just slightly out of reach.

So far, this is exactly the kind of summer reading I wanted: literary, sharp, beautifully controlled, and quietly strange.

A quiet NYC apartment with a view of Manhattan, reflecting the novel’s setting and mood