Intimacies by Katie Kitamura is the story of an interpreter at The Hague who falls in love with a married man and also gets caught up in the trial of a dictator during which she serves as an interpreter. As the protagonist says, the job of an interpreter is to minimize the gap between one language and another, which includes conveying nuance and shades of meaning. That kind of eye and ear carries over into the protagonist’s interpretation of the life around her in which she is primarily an exquisite but passive observer and facilitator. The protagonist says “I could understand anything, under the right circumstances and for the right person. It was both a strength and a weakness.” The story conveys very subtle human interactions brilliantly. Reviewers have used terms like “existential thriller” and “psychological tone poem.” The ending made me sad, but it probably couldn’t have ended any other way. Interestingly, reviewers differ on their interpretation of the ending. Here’s what Kirkus Reviews says:

http://static.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/katie-kitamura/intimacies/