Katie Kitamura on Her Booker Prize-Nominated Novel 'Audition'

Booker Prize Nomination

• 🏆 Katie Kitamura expresses thrill and surprise upon hearing her novel, 'Audition,' was shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize for Outstanding Fiction.
• 💡 The nomination celebrates six novels, with three by writers based in New York, including Kitamura.

Inspiration for 'Audition'

• 📰 Kitamura was inspired by a newspaper headline: "A stranger told me he was my son."
• 🎭 This headline evolved into a novel exploring the complexities of parenting and the feeling of encountering one's own child as a stranger.

Structural and Thematic Risks

• 🎢 Kitamura discusses the structural risks taken in the novel, particularly its mid-point turn, which she felt was crucial for keeping the book engaging.
• 🎭 The narrator, an actor preparing for a difficult play, is explored as potentially playing a part in her own life, highlighting the thinness of roles we inhabit daily.

Family as a Construction

• 🧩 The novel delves into family as a story and a construction, challenging the notion of it being solely defined by authenticity.
• 💬 Kitamura emphasizes that learning to be part of a family is a dynamic and ongoing process, subject to change and volatility.