A Separation

The narrator of this memorable, unsettling novel is a translator estranged from her charming and faithless husband Christopher. Unaware of their separation, her imperious mother-in-law instructs her to go to rural Greece, where Christopher is researching a book and has stopped returning calls. Intent on finally requesting a divorce, the narrator is initially annoyed to find him missing from his hotel. As days slip by, his disappearance grows more disturbing. Insights into intimacy and infatuation roil beneath the surface of Kitamura’s spare prose as she meticulously dissects the emotions that reverberate in the wake of infidelity. Hephzibah Anderson