A Separation

A Novel

By: Katie Kitamura

Narrated by: Katherine Waterston

Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

A PBS NewsHour/New York Times Book Club pick.

A New York Times notable book.

Named a best book of the year by the New York Times, NPR, Huffington Post, The A.V. Club, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Guardian, Refinery29, Town & Country, Harper's Bazaar, NYLON, and BookRiot.

“Kitamura’s prose gallops, combining Elena Ferrante-style intricacies with the tensions of a top-notch whodunit.” (Elle)

This is her story. About the end of her marriage. About what happened when Christopher went missing and she went to find him. These are her secrets; this is what happened....

A young woman has agreed with her faithless husband: It's time for them to separate. For the moment it's a private matter, a secret between the two of them. As she begins her new life, she gets word that Christopher has gone missing in a remote region in the rugged south of Greece; she reluctantly agrees to go look for him, still keeping their split to herself. In her heart she's not even sure if she wants to find him. As her search comes to a shocking breaking point, she discovers she understands less than she thought she did about her relationship and the man she used to love.

A searing, suspenseful story of intimacy and infidelity, A Separation lays bare what divides us from the inner lives of others. With exquisitely cool precision, Katie Kitamura propels us into the experience of a woman on edge, with a fiercely mesmerizing story to tell.

©2017 Katie Kitamura (P)2017 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“Kitamura is a writer with a visionary, visual imagination.... In A Separation, [she] has made consciousness her territory. The book is all mind, and an observant, taut, astringent mind it is.” (The New Yorker)

"A slow burn of a novel that gathers its great force and intensity through careful observation and a refusal to accept old, shopworn narratives of love and loss." (Jenny Offill, author of Dept. of Speculation)

“Fascinating, artful and atmospheric.” (Paula McLain, Parade magazine)

Sorry

Monotonous reader certainly doesn't improve on the very, very long story. What a dreary protagonist: unloving, uncaring, self-absorbed, uninteresting. Save your credits.

The mystery is our life

Not a lot of plot action but an illuminating read. The narration is slow even and meditative, but I felt it matched the inner voice of the character.

monotonous narration....blah plot...

monotonous narration and blah plot...very anti climactic...very disappointing very very disappointing.... I did not enjoy this book at all...I

The narrator should stick to bedtime stories

The narrator sounded like she was going to sleep or was trying to put me asleep. The story has a lot of introspection and very little action so the listless monotone of the narrator made it hard to focus. I would start thinking of other things and have to rewind. I only continued listening because I was interested in the story.

Terrible narration

The story intrigued me but it was hard to get past the awful narration.
I often find this a problem on Audible and now pay more attention to the performance in the samples before committing to purchase.

underwhelming

This story felt too small and too unbelievable to hold much sway with me. The mispronunciation of "Stefano" as stef-fawn-oh drove me crazy.

Excellent book, terrible narrator

The narrator never varies from the annoying single tone of isn’t-every-word-I-say-profound? melancholy. I regret having listened to this book instead of reading it, as I had been looking forward to the book and fear the narration affected my perception of the writing.

Not a Thriller, but Still Great

This book is billed in a number of places as a literary thriller, and it definitely does have a good degree of mystery and intrigue but no in the sense that you might expect from a thriller. So, if that's what you're looking for, something more action-oriented with a crazy plot this is not your book.

That being said, this book is excellent in many ways and is definitely worth a credit. The voicing is superb and the narrator does a great job of diving into Kitamura's hypnotic tone. It is incredibly slow though, I was playing this at X1.4 speed and it was ideal but when I went down to normal speed it sounded ridiculous.

It is a literary exploration of grief, marriage, identity and infidelity. Kitamura is a master at exploring her character's (only one real character to speak of - the protagonist) emotions. She does so subtly, very subtly; tip-toeing around the immense tension and conflict inherent in this books primary situation. She doesn't confront the conflict head on, and that's where some listeners may be put-off, waiting for a big reveal or a titanic moment where it all clicks.

It doesn't click plot-wise like a twisty thriller would, but it did hit me hard somewhere more subterranean, maybe spiritual, maybe existential.

Descriptive and Deep

While I did enjoy this audiobook, I don't think it is for everyone. The author spends a lot of time describing everything- places, objects, relationships and most importantly, feelings. I found myself losing interest a few times when the descriptions got particularly lenthy. While I did enjoy the narrator's performance, this is definitely not an uplifting story and best to be enjoyed while you are alone.

Rambling....

There is nothing exciting about this book. The author just keeps on rambling on and on