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Katie Kitamura opens up about the titles that have defined her literary sensibility, from the scandalous allure of Dangerous Liaisons* to the social urgency of The Jungle. The interview maps a personal reading timeline that informs her own fiction and hints at the themes she may explore next. Childhood Spark: Discovering Scandal in *Dangerous Liaisons* At age 10‑11, Kitamura took Pierre Choderlos de Laclos's *Dangerous Liaisons* off the shelf, describing the experience as “scandalised and excited”. The novel’s moral complexity planted an early fascination with narrative power. Teenage Revelation: How *The Jungle* Taught Story as Social Action Reading Upton Sinclair's *The Jungle* at 12 reshaped her view of the novel as a tool for social change. She cites the book as the first moment she grasped literature’s capacity to enact reform. Mid‑Life Turning Point: *A Personal Matter* and the Birth of a Writer In her mid‑20s, while caring for a dying father, Kitamura encountered Kenzaburō Ōe's *A Personal Matter*. The work demonstrated how fiction can sit alongside ordinary life while offering a “perch” for understanding it. Enduring Voices: Kawabata, James, and Spark as Lifelong Companions Yasunari Kawabata: Initially “tonally erratic”, now read as “minor miracles”. Henry James: *The Portrait of a Lady* reread for its shifting meanings. Muriel Spark: Discovered in her early 20s; works like *The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie* and *The Driver’s Seat* remain “astonishing”. Current Projects and Future Outlook: Revisiting Classics While Crafting New Narratives Currently rereading Ford Madox Ford's *The Good Soldier* and Graham Greene's *The End of the Affair*. Kitamura suggests that the act of rereading fuels her upcoming novel, promising a blend of classic structural rigor with contemporary thematic concerns.