Audition

A Novel

By: Katie Kitamura

Narrated by: Traci Kato-Kiriyama

NAMED A 2025 “ESSENTIAL READ” BY THE NEW YORKER AND A TOP 10 BOOK OF THE YEAR BY TIME MAGAZINE AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST, THE NEW YORKER, NPR, THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY, VOGUE, TIME MAGAZINE, MARIE CLAIRE, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE GUARDIAN, BOOK RIOT, ESQUIRE, THE NEW REPUBLIC, KIRKUS, SHELF AWARENESS AND MORE!

ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 BOOKER PRIZE

FINALIST FOR THE 2025 NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR FICTION AND THE 2026 GOTHAM BOOK PRIZE

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2026 WOMEN'S PRIZE, THE JOYCE CAROL OATES PRIZE, AND THE CAROL SHIELDS PRIZE FOR FICTION

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.

Interesting Book,

I found much of this book thought provoking. I
also bordered on thinking the author was trying too hard. I am glad I read it and it is discussion worthy. But if someone disliked it I would not be surprised.

interesting read - overall pretty good

I almost didn't read this book because of all the bad reviews, but I'm glad I persevered. Whilenit wasn't a top read for me, it is very much worth reading. Clever, well-written, it rides between psychological drama and fantasy in a unique and intriguing way.

Now to address a couple of gripes with the bad reviews:
1. How can so many people be so literal? The story is clearly about duality and performance as concepts. The structure of the novel (the two seemingly disparate "parts") that so many people were perplexed by reflect this in an embodied manner and also pretty cleverly. If you don't think abstractly or in metaphor, perhaps this is not the book for you.

2. Hate to break it to many of you but there is actually more than one way to pronounce the name Xavier. I would bet money that the people ignorantly criticizing the pronunciation of the narrator are the same people who simply couldn't believe there could be more to this story than a literal narrative about a woman who either does or does not have a son. Yikes.

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.