Wow, this was very difficult to get my head around. The first half is OK - a bit confusing as the MC meets a young man who claims to be her son. Then, part two just flips everything on its head.

I'm so pleased we discussed this as part of a book group on Litsy, reading everyone else's opinions and thoughts really helped me to understand the book more, and even to appreciate it. (Just a little bit! 😂)

2.5 stars rounded up to 3

A mysterious plot, and nuanced characters, make this enigmatic work an enjoyable read. It didn't change my world or alter my brain chemistry. However, It did keep me enthralled as I read. If you enjoy realistic fiction that has a twist, then you will love this book

I usually enjoy metafiction (looking at you, Atonement), but this one didn’t quite land. The narrative was so abstract that it felt like I was hallucinating- nothing really stuck, and I struggled to find meaning in it. The only thing I’m sure I’ll remember is that strange, disorienting feeling. It’s definitely the kind of book I’d need to reread to even begin to grasp, but I’m not sure I want to.

Easily one of the best books I've read this year - i was completely mesmerised by the writing and am still trying to untangle the relationships between the characters and what the author is trying to say about the roles we perform.

An interesting book exploring different relationships between the characters. Overall, it was fine, but not one that completely kept my attention throughout.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC.

Listen, I like novels that are experimental and meta, but - unpopular opinion! - the new Kitamura just doesn't have enough meat on the bone. Sure, all the world's a stage (As You Like It; later sociologically investigated in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life), but that this novel in two parts that lets its protagonists change roles asks, as the description of the book suggests, who we are to the people we love seems like an empty promise to me. In both parts, our narrator and protagonist is an actress with a curious tendency to treat life as literature, meaning that she ascribes meaning to every word, every object, every movement, every sound as if an artists put it there after carefully thinking about it - which drives her crazy.

In the first part, a young man contacts her because he believes her to be his mother, which isn't the case - in the second part, she IS his mother. In the first part, she cheats on her husband - in the second part, you guessed it, he cheats on her. In the first part, she struggles with a theater scene - in the second part, she mastered it, and so on. Constantly, she is performing her professional and social roles, responding to the outside world as if it consists of props and prompts, and the effect is truly unnerving and claustrophobic. This is juxtaposed by a playwright she meets, one who, as she slowly comes to understand, has no idea what she has written: The play of our life is a contingent mess, there is no coherence or pre-defined meaning.

Who are we if we have no screenplay, but masks? Sure, that's an interesting question per se, but to me, Kitamura's plot, especially the last chamber play section so reminiscent of The God of Carnage, left me cold: Nothing much happens, except vibes and an actress acting all the way through her existence. It didn't captivate me, and I mainly pulled through because Kitamura's language and scene composition are of course first class.

Thanks to NetGalley and Katie Kitamura for this review copy!

So I am a sucker for a postmodern read but this one seemed to take so many liberties with its story that I just couldn’t connect with it very much. It’s a great example of a well executed piece of experimental literature, but this wasn’t my kind of pretentious meta narrative for some reason. I can’t explain why because usually this kind of pushing of literary limits is right up my alley, but something just stopped me from connecting with it properly.

I read this over the course of a day and thought it was beautifully written. The novel, like a play, is set out in two parts and examines the relationship between our older unreliable female narrator and a younger man. The reader does not initially know the relationship between the two and is left guessing throughout. Even by the end I was confused, maybe that was the point… to draw your own conclusions.
I preferred Intimacies by this author but will definitely read anything she writes, as I do find her writing really impressive,

I picked this up after seeing a really interesting mix of early reviews here on Goodreads, knowing that that I would most like fall on an extreme level of like or dislike. Sadly, this wasn’t for me.

The writing was beautiful, but it wasn’t clicking and I was struggled to care for the characters or what was happening in the timelines so I ended up DNFing ‘Audition’.

Thank you to NetGalley and Vintage for the review copy.

This was a real meh for me, sorry. Honestly the first book of hers that just really did nothing for me (it could very well be though that I am officially stupider after having a child). Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

What a trip! Very boring to say but this is a book that works better if you go in with as little knowledge as possible. But on a basic level it is about a successful actress, her husband and a younger man. Their relationship to this young man? Who can say.

This is told in two parts and a few pages into the second part I was like ‘…huh?’ And I went back and re-read to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. I hadn’t! The writing is so tight and sharp, not a word feels wasted.

I cannot think of a better book club book, it will spark conversations and theories and many many thoughts. I had a really great reading experience and would thoroughly recommend, if only so I can selfishly have more people to talk to about it!

It’s not you it’s me. I might try this again on audiobook when it's released! The ARC formatting made it difficult to follow.

'Audition' is a strange, spare novel exploring motherhood, identity and performance. The novel begins with the unnamed narrator, an acclaimed actress, meeting a young man, Xavier, for lunch in Manhattan. We soon learn that the young man believes he is her son, but this is due to a misunderstanding as the narrator has never had a child. Another man enters the restaurant - Tomas, the narrator's husband - which complicates matters further.

From this opening, the narrator and Xavier's lives become further entangled, which also affects her marriage with Tomas. I found this a surprising and intriguing but highly compelling read which asks searching questions about who we are, how we know and the extent to which life is a performance, as different narratives exist alongside each other,

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC to review.

Adored this. Tense, claustrophobic novel about the performance of our lives, the essential unknowability of our selves and others, things fall apart the centre cannot hold etc. I read it all in one breathless sitting and immediately wanted to discuss it with everyone I know. Cannot recommend enough going in with zero idea of what this book is about!

Audition
By Katie Kitamura

When I noticed that the publisher refers to this novel as a Mobius strip I knew this wasn't going to be a straightforward narrative but I had no idea how perfectly this describes it until the very end.

I'm dizzy, I feel like I have been holding my breath for the entire second part. Several times I worried I was losing the thread, but when a high concept piece of writing which on the surface, seems imbued with surrealism, matches so closely to personal lived experience, the result can be breathtaking exposure.

The actor as woman, the skill of performing whichever iteration of woman is required in that moment, the fluidity of being able to adapt and balance outside forces and the will and expectations of others against the inner force of being, the fluidity of identity.

Who am I when I am not just me as a single person, when my partnership is under scrutiny from within or without? Who am I when my choices around parenthood are being examined? Who am I when my motherhood challenges my partner or my partnership challenges my offspring? Who am I when my partner and my offspring appear in cahoots to challenge me?

I see acknowledgement of the difficulties around raising a man while fending off the default position of chauvinism. Also the normalisation of behaviour by conspiracy.

What is a family anyway " if not a shared delusion, a mutual construction" where we "participate in the careful collusion that is a story, that is a family, told by one person to another person".


All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players....

Stunning.

Publication Date: 17th April 2025
Thanks to #Netgalley and #randomhouseuk for providing an ARC for review purposes

I have enjoyed every Katie Kitamura novel I have read but this one may be by far my favourite. As with her previous novel A Separation here too she invites the reader to unspool a narrative that is fundamentally about role-playing and the spaces between public and private performance written in her characteristic spare, taut prose. What I particularly loved about this novel is Kitamura's dexterity in building and heightening tension that helps build momentum and makes the novel utterly unputdownable.

I’m struggling to review this book without adding spoilers . I read it last month and have genuinely thought about it most days since.
Katie Kitamura has such a unique and beautiful style of writing, I’d read anything she writes. Her descriptions of people and the spaces they live in are like nothing else I’ve read. I had to reread the last forty pages , twice. I’ll reread the book when I buy a copy on publication but for now, I’d recommend this one and especially for a book club , it’s one to analyse and discuss at length .
A thought provoking read from an author at the top of her game.

Precisely crafted prose.

Cleverly structured. Perhaps too cleverly structured for me to quite grasp what is going on as the lines are blurred between reality and performance.

The opening is really engaging.and I was intensely invested in finding out whether Tomas would discover the truth regarding the relationship between the narrator and Xavier. And then... well .. everything is turned on its head and I lost the thread.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

I’m full of admiration and awe of the way Kitamura describes how people think and feel. It’s so precise and feels so right; I loved every sentence.
It’s not really clear to me what is exactly happening in this novel Are there two versions of a life being told? Is there a play being enacted? Is the narrator at all reliable? It doesn’t really matter though as it’s more about the almost hypnotic reading experience that draws you forward.
An absolutely brilliant novel about truth, subjectivity, identity, and role playing and highly recommended.
Thank you Penguin Random House UK and Netgalley UK for the ARC

The minute Audition was announced to be published, I was keen to read it. Already familiar with the authors previous works, I had high expectations for her upcoming novel. Kitamura's prose is nothing short of impeccable. The writing, while immensely smart, is free flowing, easy and enjoyable to read. The novel consist of two parts and two stories. How do these two parts connect? Are they even meant to be connected? The narrative is deliberately obscure and does not offer any clarity and takes the reader on a journey alongside the novels main protagonist. I absolutely loved it. The book ends on many questions and riddles to ponder. The characters stay with you and I can't wait to revisit this unique story and experience this authors performance all over again.