intimacies by katie kitamura (february 2023)

published in print for champaca bookstore, for february 2023
the champaca book subscription is a subscription programme by champaca bookstore, wherein carefully curated books are sent to subscribers across india every month, according to a yearly theme. as part of the subscription, the champaca team writes a curation note, contextualising the books we’ve chosen within the yearly theme. these notes are written by one team member each month, but are not personal — they are written in the general voice of the bookstore.

In the Champaca Book Subscription, we are reading books that explore our connection to the world around us, in times of loneliness. From January to March 2023, we’re delving into stories about building connections, through objects, languages, spaces, and ideas.

In Katie Kitamura’s Intimacies, we meet a young woman who has newly moved to The Hague, and works as an interpreter at the International Criminal Court. Her daily work involves translating court proceedings – the trials of politicians, presidents, and generals, people accused of war crimes and genocide. As she describes it, she works to “make the space between languages as small as possible”, making herself invisible in the process of translation. And yet to do such a thing – to interpret the words of one person, adopting their manners of speech and their tone in order to transmit their full meaning and intention as closely as possible, and to speak those words in the ear of someone else – is a strange, discomfiting intimacy.

As we thought about the different ways connections are formed, we thought of the many languages we encounter. In a new place, a shared language can be an immediate point of connection between people, and encountering a language barrier is often isolating. We find Intimacies a deeply thoughtful interrogation of this idea. It is a short novel, but it maintains a tautness and a sense of urgency throughout.

Kitamura situates her narrator at the crossroads of multiple crises: her demanding daily job, an intense but confusing new relationship, and a random act of violence that she hears of but does not witness. In each of these crises are the intertwined, related emotions of loneliness and connection. Kitamura’s narrator peels back every interaction: situations in which she strives for intimacy and encounters unknowability instead; and others where she unwittingly finds an uncomfortable intimacy against her hopes.  

We also send you Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto, an award-winning novel about a birthday party in South America that devolves into a hostage situation. While Intimacies takes us into the mind of a solo protagonist, who moves through the world alone, Bel Canto is an interesting companion read as the story of a large group of people. The members of the party speak a variety of languages, and discover that music transcends this barrier. This results in an unexpectedly tender connection in the face of danger, among the guests – and the terrorists.

We are delighted to send you these books, both thoughtful and moving explorations of violence, language, and connection.