Hello fellow book lover,
Like most other things, we’ve turned the scorching summer heat into an excuse to read more. Find some shade or a cool corner, get ourselves a chilled glass of coconut water, and pick up a book that transports us away from the sapping heat.
For us, the highlight of March was hosting an online event with Katie Kitamura. Her book Intimacies, which we sent as part of the Champaca Book Subscription, was an instant favourite for our team. We loved the precise, sometimes haunting nature of Kitamura’s work. In her conversation with our team member Nirica, she spoke in depth about the process of writing this book. We loved hearing her speak about her use of language and of her decision to not name the narrator. On not naming the narrator in Intimacies and her previous novel, she said, “When you take that [the name] away, you’re removing a lot of markers of identity and how people fit into a social structure”.
This made us think deeply about books with unnamed narrators, and why they are so appealing to us. An unnamed narrator’s voice can feel intimate, yet distant. There is usually a layer of uncertainty, a fluctuating identity that runs through these characters. Do you find it easy to picture a character without knowing their name? Tell us in the comments of this blog post. We would love to hear your thoughts.
In other news, March was also exciting because our team got to meet in person for our annual planning meeting. We thought about our curation, the kind of events we want to plan for the store, and most importantly how we want to grow our community of readers and be able to bring them a unique selection of books. We also made some time to lounge around at Cubbon park, munch on sandwiches, daydream, and talk about what we love — reading!
Before we say goodbye, we would like to leave you with this New York Times profile of Katie Kitamura by Brandon Yu. In it, she speaks about her father’s death, the persisting layer of dread that runs through Intimacies, and how her own experiences added complexity to the book.
Until next time, happy reading!