Audition

Audition is a taut, mesmerizing novel about identity, performance, and the fragile boundary between truth and illusion. When a seasoned actress meets a younger man for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant, their conversation sparks a quiet tension—one that deepens as dual narratives begin to unravel their connection.

She is immersed in rehearsals for a major role, trained to embody others while concealing herself. He is enigmatic, familiar, and possibly dangerous. As their interaction unfolds, the reader is pulled into shifting layers of memory, desire, and ambiguity, where every exchange might be rehearsal or revelation.

Katie Kitamura constructs a narrative Möbius strip—a story that folds back on itself, reframing every moment through the lens of perception and performance. Audition probes the roles we inhabit in art and life—mother, lover, artist, object—and the deep, often invisible costs of playing them too well.

Gripping and disquieting, this is a novel that blurs boundaries with precision, leaving the reader questioning what is real, what is imagined, and what we choose to see.