A Separation - Tapa dura

A novel so seamless, that follows its path with such consequence, that even minor deviations seem loaded with meaning. Wonderful. (Karl Ove Knausgaard)

A Separation is riveting, unsettling and beautifully written. Katie Kitamura really is the business. (Roddy Doyle)

Consider Katie Kitamura a literary heavyweight in the making. (Vogue)

Kitamura's protagonist is a smart, accomplished, contemporary version of that ancient literary figure, the unreliable narrator ... A Separation leaves you intrigued, impressed (Kate Clanchy Guardian 2017-03-18)

Gripping ... the precision of Kitamura's prose is nothing short of extraordinary. She writes with a piercing clarity picking apart the detail of her characters' emotions and actions with the meticulousness of a forensic expert analysing a crime scene, or a medical examiner conducting an autopsy ... There's so much to admire here; such delight to be taken in the composition of these clauses, the way in which they allow one to visualise the pace of the underlying though processes. Not to mention the fact that Kitamura's astonishing decision to elucidate instincts and impulses-not least to first describe, then identity-is inspired ... She fearlessly strips back façades and plunges depths, as a result of which A Separation is a beautifully written powerhouse of a novel that defies all expectations. (Lucy Scholes Independent 2017-03-22)

The voice is strong - distinctive, inviting while also remote, expressive of an emotional limbo ... finely executed ... Multiple scenes are artfully articulated, and Kitamura is skilful at describing fine shades of feeling ... the prose is often elegant ... A Separation successfully evokes a highly specific mood: a lostness, a dislocation, a suspension, a mourning ... Kitamura strikes a haunting note (Lionel Shriver FT 2017-03-11)

The burnt landscape, the disappearance of a man, the brilliantly cold, precise, and yet threatening, churning tone of the narrator - make A Separation an absolutely mesmerizing work of art. (Rachel Kushner)

A slow burn of a novel that gathers its great force and intensity through careful observation and a refusal to accept old, shopworn narratives of love and loss. (Jenny Offill)

A Separation opens up fissures of ambiguity in emotional experiences too often misunderstood as monolithic-grief, desire, estrangement-and plumbs these crevices for all their complexities. It has both urgency and afterglow: I read it quickly, but didn't stop thinking about it for a long time once I was done. (Leslie Jamison)

Profound and gripping. I had that rare sense of feeling like I was in a creation specifically made out of words, that couldn't have been made out of any other substance. Kitamura combines the calm complexity of Joseph Conrad with the pacing and reveal of Patricia Highsmith. (Rivka Galchen)