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Perfection
- Author
- Vincenzo Latronico
- Narrator
- Sophie Roberts
- Publisher
- Tantor Media, Inc
- Publish Date
- 29 July 2025
- Run Time
- 3 hours 15 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
- Genre
- Fiction: general and literary, Satirical fiction and parodies, Fiction: general and literary, Narrative theme: Sense of place
- Rating
- 3.0 (1 review)
What to expect
A scathing, provocative novel about contemporary existence by a rising star in Italian literature.
Anna and Tom, an expat couple, have fashioned a dream life for themselves in Berlin. They are young digital "creatives" exploring the excitements of the city, freelancers without too many constraints, who spend their free time cultivating house plants and their images online. At first, they reasonably deduce that they've turned their passion for aesthetics into a viable, even enviable career, but the years go by, and Anna and Tom grow bored. As their friends move back home or move on, so their own work and sex life—and the life of Berlin itself—begin to lose their luster. An attempt to put their politics into action fizzles in embarrassed self-doubt. Edging closer to forty, they try living as digital nomads only to discover that, wherever they go, "the brand of oat milk in their flat whites was the same."
Perfection is a scathing novel about contemporary existence, a tale of two people gradually waking up to find themselves in various traps, wondering how it all came to be. Was it a lack of foresight, or were they just born too late?
User Reviews
Book 3.0
Narration 3.0
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3.0 3.0
I bought this book because our daughter is living in Berlin plus we know the city quite well having been to visit her several times. There are parts that describe the expat/WFH lifestyle well & some of Tom & Anna's experiences match those of our daughter. But I question the need of a lengthy passage on their sex lives & that of (apparently) numerous Berliners. Ultimately it's quite a nihilistic book - Tom & Anna are overtaken by time & loneliness. Perfection it is not......but perhaps that's the whole point!
On the narration, too many German words are not translated so a listener is being excluded from some essential narrative.Ballyhooo 2025-11-11
Details
- Author
- Vincenzo Latronico
- Narrator
- Sophie Roberts
- Duration
- 3 hours 15 minutes
- Release Date
- 29 July 2025
- ISBN
- 9798331966867
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Tantor Media, Inc
- Genre
- Fiction: general and literary, Satirical fiction and parodies, Fiction: general and literary, Narrative theme: Sense of place
- Rating
- 3.0(1 review)
- Narration
- 3.0(1 review)
Synopsis
A 2025 International Booker Prize Shortlist NomineeA scathing, provocative novel about contemporary existence by a rising star in Italian literature.Anna and Tom, an expat couple, have fashioned a dream life for themselves in Berlin. They are young digital "creatives" exploring the excitements of the city, freelancers without too many constraints, who spend their free time cultivating house plants and their images online. At first, they reasonably deduce that they've turned their passion for aesthetics into a viable, even enviable career, but the years go by, and Anna and Tom grow bored. As their friends move back home or move on, so their own work and sex life—and the life of Berlin itself—begin to lose their luster. An attempt to put their politics into action fizzles in embarrassed self-doubt. Edging closer to forty, they try living as digital nomads only to discover that, wherever they go, "the brand of oat milk in their flat whites was the same."Perfection is a scathing novel about contemporary existence, a tale of two people gradually waking up to find themselves in various traps, wondering how it all came to be. Was it a lack of foresight, or were they just born too late?
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