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Audition

A sharp, incisive literary summer read

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Audition

By: Katie Kitamura
Narrated by: Traci Kato-Kiriyama
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£5.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends on 5 July 2026 at 11:59 BST. Cancel monthly.

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Brought to you by Penguin.

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025**
**LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2026**

One woman, the performance of a lifetime. Or two. An exhilarating, destabilising 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.

© Katie Kitamura 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

 Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Psychological Suspense Thriller & Suspense Women's Fiction
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Critic reviews

Kitamura’s great talent is describing the minutiae of human connections, how in the course of seconds an interaction can provoke sympathy, then irritation, followed by confusion. She can turn a single exchange into a symphony of implications
Kitamura is unparalleled . . . Always engaging and thought-provoking . . . Audition is a lightning bolt of a novel
Katie Kitamura’s latest novel, Audition, is slick, sharp, strange and singular. I love her work; she’s a writer who can conjure intrigue from the scantest detail, and you’ll gulp this novel down in one in-breath (Samantha Harvey, Booker Prize-winning author of ORBITAL)
Kitamura's novels are short, sharp and deadly. I’m not sure there’s anyone better writing in America today (Alex Preston)
A literary performance of true uncanniness: one that, in a very real sense, takes on life
Audition has powerful things to say about our present destabilised society . . . This superb, thoughtful novel resonated long after finishing
A quiet novel about the ways we hide our true selves from others – and ourselves (Barack Obama)
Kitamura is always worth reading
Kitamura is totally in control of her prodigious gifts. Her confluence of style and ruthless intelligence is so distinctive that it feels almost like its own genre. Whether she remains in the terrain she has established or not, we are lucky to read her
A daring, riddling novel . . . A literary hall of mirrors that explores the deepest questions about performance, identity and how we relate to each other
All stars
Most relevant
the pronunciation of the sons name throughout the book was painful to listen to and whole thing sounded AI generated narration. really ruined the story for me

terrible pronounciation

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I don't usually need to like the main protagonist to like a book. This one, though, gave me no humanity to connect to, no purchase with the wider world, or context to understand her. The writing is good but the stories flat and unthrilling. Narrated robotically, which may have been an artistic intention, and with an intriguing but ultimately unsatisfactory plot, I came up against two versions of a woman I wouldn't want to spend any time in the company of, and a story which didn't broaden my perspective, something I hope for in a book. in a way I enjoyed it, but I won't be recommending it to anyone.

odd, soulless, a little intriguing

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Fucking weird. What can I say more?
The writing is immaculate and so are the characters.
I’ll definitely be back for more of her books

Fucking weird and I love it

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Wasn't keen on the narrator for this book. found the long windy sentences tricky on audio and not much actual plot.

Not sure what to think

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I had read it on kindle and found it challenging so was glad to find it as a kindle deal. Well worth it and I understand this Booker longlisted novel more now

Excellent narration of this Cuskian book

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