Bookshelf — The Elegance and Simplicity of “Intimacies”

Katie Kitamura’s novel is to be savored for is clarity and humanity

Anonymity is antithetical to intimacy, is it not? To label something as anonymous is to proclaim not only mystery, but also distance, possible menace, and perhaps even tawdriness. An anonymous letter, an anonymous phon call, anonymous sex. Worrisome at best.

“Intimacies” reverses this dynamic and employs the anonymity of its protagonist — an interpreter in the international court in The Hague — to draw us closer. With few given clues to define…