The quiet, evenly-toned surface of Kitamura's novel belies its unsettling power The narrator is a woman from Singapore who begins a job in the Hague as a translator at a place the novel calls the Court (surely an analogue of the World Court, though Kitamura denies any actual connection). Having lived in many different places already, none of which is really home, she has become an acute observer of her surroundings, and her translational skills have made her a sensitive interpreter of tone and nuance. Tthe novel explores intimacy of various kinds--- friendship with another interpeter, an affair with a married man, and deeply disquieting encounters with a corrupt and ruthless head of state for whom she is the interpreter. Intimacy and estrangement form an inextricable web in this subtle, beautifully crafted novel.