In 2021, Barack Obama picked Katie Kitamura’s Intimacies as one of his favourite books of the year. In it, the unnamed protagonist moves to The Hague from New York to work as a staff interpreter at the International Criminal Court. She is struggling with the grief of her father’s passing, “and more than usually susceptible to the promise of intimacy”. At the workplace, she interprets words of people, sometimes leaders (of usually poor developing countries) who are being tried for rights abuses and war crimes. Other people’s stories and hers interject and Kitamura explores the many kinds of intimacies. Her previous novel, A Separation, is a whydunnit and tells the story of what happens when a woman, seeking divorce, goes in search of her missing partner. In a conversation on the sidelines of the Jaipur Literature Festival, Kitamura talks about her craft, why interiority of the mind appeals to her, and what it means to live with another writer — her husband, Hari Kunzru. Edited excerpts:
How do you develop the voice in which your stories are told?
Rhythm is very important to me. In my books, I am always interested in interiority, and the movement of a mind on a page, and that’s what I am trying to convey in prose style. Because of that, I don’t mind a little circularity — often the narrator tries to describe an event once, twice and thrice, and maybe the third time is the clearest version. The iterative nature is important to the voice. I am interested in destabilisation and uncertainty, so the language is often, “it seemed”, rather than “it was”, or “it might have been”, rather than “it is”. I am interested in contingency, inconsistency of experience. The characters often aren’t sure of what is happening, and I want to use the style to convey that uncertainty.
There’s a lot you leave unsaid too; for instance, the protagonist of ‘Intimacies’ remains unnamed...
I withhold a lot of personal information about my characters. We don’t know their names, age, we don’t know much about their background, the history of their relationships. But my hope is always that putting the reader in the mind of the character creates a kind of identification, and compensates for the lack of information. Identification with a character is what I am interested in more than relatability. Solitude too is very important to me. I have gone to literature and writing for solitude. I am interested in the depiction of loneliness, but that is I think distinct from solitude.
‘A Separation’ is like a who- and whydunnit. Are you interested in writing crime fiction?
I would love to be able to write crime fiction. I grew up reading Agatha Christie novels, that was my bread and butter. Even when I knew the answer, the so called ‘solution’, I would read the books again and again.
But you have done one better, you never provide all the answers.
When it’s a first-person novel, everything is unreliable, and I hope it adds a sense of unreliability to the narrative too. In Intimacies, there are so many kinds of intimacy: love, loss, sexual intimidation, power, empathy. Perhaps I’m less interested in cohesion and more interested in dispersion. That’s how I experience life, anyway.
For ‘Intimacies’, what did you learn during your research on the International Criminal Court at The Hague?
I learnt a lot during my research on the International Criminal Court (ICC). I believe in these institutions. I think they are critical. There are institutions that I used to consider semi-permanent — the European Union, for instance. But when Brexit happened, I vividly understood this was not the case. Hari [Kunzru] is English, our children have British passports. It was deeply personal. Many of these institutions are recent inventions. They are young, the ICC is young. I think it is simultaneously important to protect these institutions, while also holding them accountable to themselves. There’s no contradiction in terms there. The moral authority of these institutions is critically important, and is achieved through accountability.
How is it living with a writer?
We don’t talk about our books when we are writing but we share drafts when we are done, and nothing goes out of the house until the other person gives the go-ahead. Hari is the only person I trust to give me the hard truth. With Intimacies, I thought I had a finished draft, and I gave it to him for a read. He came into my office and said, ‘I know you think you are done, but you are not done.’ I trust him to give me the bad news. I think he believes in my capacity as a writer more than I do. So it’s wonderful to have somebody say, I know what you are trying to write, and I believe that you can write it, but you are not there yet. His new book, Blue Ruin, is very good, it is coming out this month.
What are you working on?
I am writing a new novel, but I can’t talk about it just yet. The title and other details will be officially announced in July, and the book will be out next year.
sudipta.datta@thehindu.co.in
