India, Oct. 9 -- Katie Kitamura's Audition, shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize, is a novel that is at once intimate and disorienting. Set against the New York theatre scene, it follows an unnamed actress, an accomplished performer in rehearsals for an upcoming play, who meets a younger man, Xavier, for lunch. This encounter, charged with ambiguity, spirals into a subtle exploration of identity, desire, and the parts we perform - for ourselves and the world.

When Xavier asks her out to lunch, her initial response ripples with undercurrents of forbidden desire. She is married to Tomas, and the encounter with Xavier complicates the boundaries of her personal and emotional life. As the story progresses, the interactions between them unfol...