Audition

A Novel

De: Katie Kitamura

Narrado por: Traci Kato-Kiriyama

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME MAGAZINE, MARIE CLAIRE, BOOK RIOT, ESQUIRE, KIRKUS, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY AND MORE!

ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 BOOKER PRIZE

INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER

“A tightly wound family drama that reads like a psychological thriller."—NPR

“Bold, stark, genre-bending, Audition will haunt your dreams.”—The Boston Globe

One woman, the performance of a lifetime. Or two. An exhilarating, destabilizing Möbius strip of a novel that asks whether we ever really know the people we love.

Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She’s an accomplished actress in rehearsals for an upcoming premiere. He’s attractive, troubling, young—young enough to be her son. Who is he to her, and who is she to him? In this compulsively readable, brilliantly constructed novel, two competing narratives unspool, rewriting our understanding of the roles we play every day – partner, parent, creator, muse – and the truths every performance masks, especially from those who think they know us most intimately.

Taut and hypnotic, Audition is Katie Kitamura at her virtuosic best.

great book, not-so-great narrator

the reader would have been fine- albeit somewhat robotic- had she not pronounced the silent “g” at the end of every word ending in “ing”, making either a hard “g” or a “k” sound. it was distracting and pretty goll dog annoying. i could understand if it were a first-person narrative about a quirky woman who pronounces the “g” at the end of every “ing”. we’ll wait for that book. unfortunately, this was not that.

Left up to the reader

I liked the dichotomy in the story. I thought the character development of the husband was really good. I was hoping to find out an explanation for the mother/son relationship but I understand the author not answering everything. Beautifully written. The exquisite details were very effective and not at all over the top or tiring. I listened to the book after hearing K.K.'s interview on NPR. I'm glad I caught that. Well done, Katie!!

Good

Something different than my usual, not bad . Thought it was going to be something different than it was overall.

Writing and story

Mispronunciation of a name used many times over and over again. Xavier was one of the main characters.

Though-provoking and uncomfortable in a good way

Once I started, I did not want to put it down. Interesting exploration of motherhood, young, adult, childhood, and the roles that we play.

I don’t know how books audiobooks can be produced without editing attention to something like the correct pronunciation of a very important name within the story. Strange.