Why am I passionate about this?
I’m genuinely fascinated by human nature and why we behave the way we do, the things that make us act within or out of character, and at what point they become a part of who we are rather than just a lapse in judgment or an isolated incident. Relationships in particular fascinate me because of the way they force us to reckon with our behavior towards ourselves and other people. I love seeing how writers explore and examine those relationships, whether before, after, or during them, and how they allow their characters to move through those moments. Often, despite how far-fetched some of the scenarios may feel, I find myself within their pages.
Ore's book list on very, very messy relationships
Why did Ore love this book?
I loved A Separation because we learned so little about the personality of the husband, who goes missing, and the narrator – his estranged wife – who goes to Greece to look for him.
Kitamura instead shows us who the husband is by how he makes others, including the woman at the hotel in Greece he has an affair with and the narrator herself, feel. It’s a sharp and taut depiction of what happens when a love dies over time, and what you do with the pieces that are left.
1 author picked A Separation as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
A young woman has agreed with her faithless husband: it's time for them to separate. For the moment it's a private matter, a secret between the two of them. As she begins her new life, alone, she gets word that her ex-husband has gone missing in a remote region in the rugged southern Peloponnese. Reluctantly she agrees to go and search for him, still keeping their split to herself. In her heart, she's not even sure if she wants to find him. Adrift in the wild and barren landscape, she traces the failure of their relationship, and finds that she…