Intimacies

The narrator is a cosmopolitan woman whose lifetime of moving from one city to another has left her feeling estranged from her family and from her own identity. When the novel opens, she has relocated from New York to The Hague in search of a new start after her father’s death. What begins as her attempt to assimilate into a new country evolves into a search for belonging and a quest to resolve her feelings of displacement. She also struggles to find the emotional and existential comfort that gaining a true home can bring. While trying to navigate the complex terrain of a foreign city, the narrator also must maneuver the complicated dynamics of redefining her sense of self. Her internal reflections reveal her struggle to center herself professionally, personally, and culturally, and her introspective musings and keen observations reveal her evolving understanding of others. The narrator’s transient lifestyle, coupled with her employment at an international organization, contributes to her sense of being an outsider, and her namelessness creates a the sense that in her very essence: She is unsettled and unfinished and could therefore transform into anyone. Through her intimate first-person narration, the narrator reveals her internal and external journey as she charts her attempts to forge personal relationships and professional responsibilities that will allow her to find an authentic home for her body and her soul.