At just 208 pages, Katie Kitamura's Audition, which was published in 2025, is a slender novel. Its story, however, packs an emotional punch. The novel follows an actress preparing for her role in a play called The Opposite Shore when she meets a young man named Xavier, who purports to be her son. Kitamura had long been interested in writing a novel that explored a central question: how can a stranger be someone's son -- especially when they've never given birth? As the narrative unfolds, readers watch as the woman learns more about Xavier, an intelligent but troubled young man, and more about herself. It is a novel about the masks people wear to get along in life, as well as the meaning of family and the nature of love and parenthood.
Some reviewers have described Kitamura's novel as "high-concept" and criticized it for being far too abstract. Others, however, have written very positively about the novel. The New York Times, for instance, called Kitamura's novel "thrilling" and praised Kitamura's "precis[e]" prose and characters. On the other hand, Adam Mars-Jones of The London Review of Books criticized the novel for failing to help readers bridge the gap between the first and second sections of the book, which he thought were wildly divergent in terms of tone, prose, and theme. He also felt that Kitamura could have "gone further" with the story. These polarizing reviews are reflective of how everyday readers feel about the novel as well. On Goodreads.com, which collects readers' opinions on books, Audition received a 3.33/5 overall average score, with more than half of Goodreads readers scoring the book three or fewer stars.
