"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 , author of Dept. of Speculation

"A novel so seamless, that follows its path with such consequence, that even minor deviations seem loaded with meaning. Wonderful." -- Karl Ove Knausgaard , author of My Struggle

"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 , author of The Flamethrowers

"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. This novel is a wonder and a pleasure." -- Rivka Galchen , author of Atmospheric Disturbances and Little Labors

" 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 , author of The Empathy Exams

"Kitamura is a major talent." -- The Boston Globe

"A startling, discomfiting work, written in razor-sharp prose... A brilliant book early in what will surely be a major career." -- Financial Times  

"What Kitamura summons brilliantly is the sensation of a repressed and repressive society laid bare - erotically, psychologically and politically. She writes with equal authority about the weight of a man's gaze on a disrobing woman and the sensation of being exposed by history's glare... [C]onfirms Kitamura's prodigious talent." -- The New York Times Book Review

"Hemingway's returned to life--and this time, he's a woman." --Tom McCarthy

"A mesmerizing novel, one whose force builds inexorably as its story unfolds in daring, unexpected strokes... Be warned: you'll find yourself reading long past midnight, out of breath and wide awake. This is a bold and powerful book." --Julie Orringer

"A watchful and magnificent work. From the first page, Kitamura is in complete control, both of the prose and the story it carries. She is a skilled hunter and we are her helpless prey." --Teju Cole