The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Kitamura, Katie. Audition. Riverhead Books, 2025.

Katie Kitamura's novel Audition is told from the first person point of view and traces the life of an unnamed middle-aged actress living in New York City. The novel subverts expectations of the conventional narrative plot line to enact the narrator's uncanny experience of reality. The novel is written in the past tense and defies narrative linearity. For the sake of clarity, this guide relies on the present tense and a more streamlined mode of explanation.

In Part 1, the first person narrator is rehearsing for the play The Other Shore at a playhouse near her West Village apartment. One day, a young man named Xavier appears at the house to see the narrator. The narrator agrees to have coffee with him in the lobby café but is immediately alarmed when Xavier asks if she is his birth mother. He explains that he read a recent profile on her where she alluded to having given a child up for adoption. He thinks he could be the child. Affronted, the narrator insists she has never had a child.

Not long later, the narrator's director Anne informs the narrator that she gave Xavier her email address. Xavier emails the narrator asking if they can meet up again because he wants to talk to her. On a whim, she agrees. A few days later, she reports to a restaurant in the financial district where Xavier is waiting for her. Over lunch, Xavier tries to apologize for their misunderstanding. The narrator struggles to focus on the conversation, wondering what the other diners and the waiter must think of seeing her with this young, attractive man. Then the narrator's husband Tomas appears at the restaurant. The narrator is mortified and ashamed. Tomas does not acknowledge her and races out.

Back at home later, the narrator is upset to discover that Tomas is not home. When he returns and explains his whereabouts, the narrator is skeptical of his story. She wonders if he saw her at the restaurant or if he is having an affair of his own. However, the confusion blows over and the narrator spends the next week in blissful harmony with her husband.

Then one day, the narrator runs into Xavier outside her local café. He explains that Anne offered him a job as her new assistant. They walk to the playhouse together. While they chat, the narrator privately remembers when she had a miscarriage years prior.

At the theater, the narrator gets annoyed with the scene they are supposed to be rehearsing. She is suddenly convinced that the playwright Max is as confused as the writing. Then Tomas messages her, insisting they have to talk. She cannot call him back before Anne starts rehearsal.

In Part 2, the narrator goes out to dinner with Tomas and their son Xavier. Xavier tells his parents he will be taking more work with Anne and asks if he can temporarily move in with them. The narrator is hesitant, but she and Tomas agree. On the day Xavier arrives at the apartment, the narrator is overwhelmed by all of her son's belongings. She flees the apartment, uncertain if her and Tomas's relationship can withstand this change after all.

Over the following weeks, the narrator, Tomas, and Xavier settle into a routine. Xavier is barely home, and when he is, he is quiet and tidy. One day, the narrator asks Tomas if Xavier is uncomfortable. Tomas asserts that he is trying to appease the narrator.

Not long later, Xavier asks his parents if his friend Hana can move in with him, too. The narrator is annoyed and confused, but agrees. On the night of Hana's arrival, the narrator feels edgy and dismisses herself to bed. In the morning, she feels obligated to invite Hana on a walk with her. On their way to the café for pastries, Hana reveals that she and Xavier are in a serious relationship. She also asserts that this period of reconciliation between Xavier and the narrator is good. The narrator is shocked, insisting that she and Xavier have always been close.

Hana becomes a fixture at the apartment in the weeks following. She and Xavier gradually take over the living room. The narrator becomes increasingly bothered by their intrusive, assumptive behavior, but cannot keep Tomas from catering to their every whim. Then one night, the narrator returns home early from her cast dinner to find Tomas, Xavier, and Hana engaged in a raucous and baffling game. Alarmed, the narrator demands that Hana leave. Afterwards, she tells Xavier that their living situation is over. Xavier calls her crazy and leaves.

A month later, Xavier returns to the apartment. He gives his parents a copy of the manuscript he just finished. It is a one-woman monologue. The narrator imagines herself performing the part on stage, convinced that Xavier's writing would make her feel real. On the other hand, she can imagine herself reading the lines in an unanimated fashion and feeling nothing.