Intimacies

Written in 2021 by Japanese American author Katie Kitamura, Intimacies explores the complicated nature of love and secrecy and examines the blurred boundaries that define human connections. The novel follows an unnamed narrator whose job as a language interpreter for the World Court in The Hague draws her into an intricate web of moral ambiguities within the diplomatic world. At the same time, she must navigate the psychological impact of grief and personal entanglements. The novel was longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award and PEN/Faulkner Award and was a finalist for the Joyce Carol Oates Award. The novel also made President Barack Obama’s summer reading list in 2021 and was listed as one of The New York Times’s Book Review’s “10 Best Books of 2021.”

Kitamura’s previous novel, A Separation, also featuring an unnamed narrator, was a finalist for the Premio Gregor von Rezzori and a New York Times Notable Book in 2017. Translated into 16 different languages, A Separation was widely acknowledged as one of the year's best books and was adapted into a screenplay. Additionally, two of her other works, Gone to the Forest and The Longshot, were awarded the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award. Kitamura currently teaches creative writing at New York University.

This guide refers to the 2021 Penguin Random House eBook edition.

Content Warning: Both the source material and this guide contain descriptions of crimes against humanity, including a victim’s testimony detailing a genocide in her village.

Plot Summary

After her father dies and her mother returns to their country of origin in Singapore, the unnamed narrator accepts a position as an interpreter for the World Court in The Hague, Netherlands. Since her contract is only for a year, everything about her life in The Hague feels temporary, including her relationships and her impersonal rented apartment. The narrator has a convivial relationship with her coworkers at the Court, but she has only one close friend in The Hague: Jana, a curator at the Mauritshuis Museum. The narrator is also involved in a romantic relationship with a married man named Adriaan. She does not know about his wife and children until Adriaan’s friend Kees, a renowned defense attorney, tells her at a cocktail party. While Adriaan steps away, Kees drunkenly and luridly makes a pass at the narrator and tells her that Gaby, Adriaan’s wife, has left him and has taken the children to Lisbon, Portugal.

The narrator’s work in the Court goes far beyond translating testimony from one language to another, for she must also accurately interpret the words’ deeper meanings in order to create a cohesive narrative and preserve the truth as much as possible. The work is physically demanding, requiring her to sit in the courtroom for long hours as she listens, makes notes, and rapidly interprets the proceedings. She also learns that the work of translating is emotionally draining because the Court tries war criminals, and she must listen to gruesome details of many heinous crimes against humanity.

Jana invites the narrator over to her apartment for dinner and encourages her to move to the same neighborhood and purchase her own apartment. The narrator is uncertain how long she will remain in The Hague and is reluctant to put down any permanent roots. They plan for another dinner party that will including Adriaan, and the narrator returns home. The following day, Jana calls to check on her. A man was mugged and beaten outside of Jana’s apartment that night. The random act of violence has frightened Jana and also unnerves the narrator: She wonders what else is lurking under the delicately curated façade of the city. Jana later learns that the victim was Anton de Rijik, a local bookshop owner.

Bettina, the narrator’s supervisor, assigns her to translate for a Jihadist who is arriving at the Detention Center. His trial will be high-profile and secretive, so she cannot tell anyone about his arrival. The narrator goes to the Detention Center in the middle of the night to translate the Jihadist’s rights before officials put him behind bars to await trial. The court assumes that his first language is French, but he is offended by the narrator’s French and is incensed that an Arabic translator has not been procured. The entire encounter is unsettling to the narrator, for as she reviews his file and sees his crimes, she feels that she has never been in such close proximity to pure evil. The interaction leaves her exhausted, and she is late for her dinner with Jana and Adriaan the next day. When she arrives an hour late for dinner, she perceives that Jana might be flirting with Adriaan, but she is not quite sure. In reality, the two spent the hour getting to know one another, and Jana also grilled Adriaan to ascertain his fitness as a partner for her friend. After dinner, on the way to his apartment, Ariaan tells the narrator that he will be traveling to Lisbon to see his children and to ask Gaby for a divorce. He will be gone for a week or perhaps longer, and he invites her to stay in his apartment while he’s away. Later that night, the narrator leaves Adriaan’s bed and walks around his apartment. She notices that he still has a photo of Gaby and reflects on the fact that he has another life about which she knows very little.

Amina, the narrator’s co-worker and one of the most adept translators in the Court, is pregnant and will soon be taking leave. The narrator will take her place, so she joins Amina in the translator's booth for the trial of the former president of a West African country, who has been accused of crimes against humanity. The trial is widely publicized because the Court has recently been under fire for showing bias against African countries. In addition to protesters outside the court, many supporters of the former president are in the court gallery. As the narrator takes over the translating duties, she finds herself increasingly uncomfortable with how close her duties bring her to this man who has no remorse for his crimes and behaves like a celebrity in court. She is disturbed by the unwanted intimacy that speaking his words creates for her. Even more alarming is Kees’s surprise appearance in the courtroom as a lead attorney for the defense. Still unnerved by her prior interaction with Kees, the narrator worries that their social connection will be interpreted as a conflict of interest and will get her fired.

Weeks go by, and Adriaan doesn’t return the narrator’s messages. She feels foolish staying in his lavish apartment and becomes increasingly lonely as she begins to doubt the viability of their relationship. Meanwhile, as the trial progresses, the defense team summons the narrator to translate for the president in their private meetings. To do her job properly, she must force herself to put aside her judgments of the president’s crimes so that she can focus on the task of translating, but she remains uncomfortable with the growing rapport that the president develops with her. To make matters worse, Kees catches her after one of the meetings and suggests that Adriaan has gone to Lisbon to win Gaby back from her lover.

One day, Jana invites the narrator to an art opening at the Mauritshuis with Eline, who is the sister of Anton, the bookshop owner who was recently mugged. The narrator and Eline bond over a mutual interest in a particular painting at the permanent exhibit. Eline later invites the narrator out for coffee, but the narrator still does not reveal her awareness that Eline is Anton’s sister. Eline invites the narrator to have dinner with herself and Anton. The dinner is awkward as Anton shares the details of his recent experience of being mugged. He claims to have no memory of the attack or even of why he was in that neighborhood in the first place. His claim of amnesia is questionable, and later, the narrator spots Anton having lunch with another woman. She realizes that he is having an affair and has lied about the details of that night in order to hide his clandestine relationship.

The trial continues, and the prosecution calls a victim of the genocide to testify against the accused. Her compelling testimony captivates the interpreters and makes the narrator realize the degree to which she has become desensitized to the testimony that she must interpret. In the final private meeting for which the narrator is asked to translate, the president realizes that she has surrendered her neutrality, and he asks her to leave. The Court drops the case against the president and sets him free. The narrator’s supervisor, Bettina, offers the narrator a permanent job at the Court, but she declines, claiming that she is not emotionally equipped to handle the intensity of the work. The narrator moves out of Adriaan’s apartment, but when she returns to collect her things, Gaby appears unexpectedly and says that Adriaan is returning with the children. Feeling lost and alone, the narrator visits the dunes near the beach and calls her mother. Her mother reminds her of when they visited The Hague during the narrator’s childhood and reassures her that when some things end, new things begin. Adriaan returns, and the narrator accepts his invitation to dinner. He apologizes for ignoring her messages and explains that dealing with his wife and children has proven more difficult than anticipated. The narrator empathizes with his situation and resolves to give him and their relationship another chance. Adriaan asks to walk with her to the dunes, and she accepts.