Perfection

A razor-sharp novel from one Italy's most exciting authors, about a millennial couple's quest for authenticity in a life designed according to social media trends.They have everything to make them happy. Expat couple Anna and Tom are living the dream in Berlin, in a bright, plant-filled apartment. Young, cool digital creatives, they enjoy slow cooking, Danish furniture, progressive politics, sexual experimentation and the city's twenty-four-hour party scene.It's exactly the life they had imagined for themselves. But they begin to feel disillusioned, bored. Work becomes repetitive. Friends move away, have children, grow up. An attempt at political activism proves fruitless, since their direct action amounts to taking an Uber only if it is snowing, tipping in cash, never eating tuna.Trapped in a lifestyle optimised for digital perfection, yearning for authenticity, they find themselves doing something they could never have predicted.Vincenzo Latronico's stylistic mastery, wit and wry humour make Perfection a brilliant novel about contemporary life.PRAISE FOR PERFECTION-'Sharp and revelatory. Latronico demonstrates that, despite their vanity, his characters Anna and Tom are not so different from others whose lives are conditioned by the consumer economy-they want what others want- a life that is legible to them yet not prescribed. Latronico is a brilliant and fearless writer. I recommend this novel to every reader I meet.' Ellena Savage, author of BlueberriesPerfection is a jewel of a novel- precisely cut, intricately faceted, prismatically dazzling at its heart. Vincenzo Latronico is the finest of writers.' Lauren Groff, author of The Vaster Wilds'This book gives startling form to the question of how to live a meaningful life; to the illusion that appearance is beauty; to the restlessness of contemporary society. I read it in a breath and I was captivated.' Ayşeg l Savaş, author of The Anthropologists'Perfection is a generation-defining piece of literature, one that spares us nothing. To read it is to look in a mirror and finally, for the first time, truly see yourself and the culture you've helped create- the one that lurks behind the filters, algorithms and curated ephemera of selfhood that make up our public lives. Read it and tremble.' Madeleine Watts, author of Elegy, Southwest'Perfection is dense with ideas, feelings, political insights, beautiful turns of phrase, unexpected observations about ordinary occurrences.' New Yorker'Latronico's conceit is clever and will delight anyone familiar with his source material, but his execution is ingenious.' Alice Gregory, New Yorker

Short-listed for International Booker Prize 2025 (UK)

‘Sharp and revelatory. Latronico demonstrates that, despite their vanity, his characters Anna and Tom are not so different from others whose lives are conditioned by the consumer economy—they want what others want: a life that is legible to them yet not prescribed. Latronico is a brilliant and fearless writer. I recommend this novel to every reader I meet.’ Ellena Savage, author of Blueberries
‘Vincenzo Latronico is a writer who sees clearly and conveys it beautifully. In Perfection, he paints a stark picture of the conditions that have created a generation’s “identical struggle for a different life”: globalization, homogenization, the internet. Though on one level the novel is (pitch-perfectly) “about” Berlin and the “creative professional” expatriates who have sought a different life in, and inevitably colonized, the city, the story of Anna and Tom will be uncomfortably familiar to anyone who has tried to resist the flattening effects of whatever life is now. I can't recommend it highly enough.’ Lauren Oyler, author of Fake Accounts

‘One of Europe’s most talented young writers, Latronico has written the great Berlin novel we’ve all been waiting for.’

Gideon Lewis-Kraus, New Yorker
‘Perfection is a jewel of a novel: precisely cut, intricately faceted, prismatically dazzling at its heart. Vincenzo Latronico is the finest of writers.’ Lauren Groff, author of The Vaster Wilds
‘An important novel, innovative in its own way.’ Claudia Durastanti, author of Strangers I Know
‘A new master of Italian literature.’ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
‘Perfection masterfully updates Georges Perec’s masterpiece Les Choses.’ Rivista Studio
‘Perfection is a generation-defining piece of literature, one that spares us nothing. To read it is to look in a mirror and finally, for the first time, truly see yourself and the culture you've helped create: the one that lurks behind the filters, algorithms and curated ephemera of selfhood that make up our public lives. Read it and tremble.’ Madeleine Watts, author of Elegy, Southwest
‘This book gives startling form to the question of how to live a meaningful life; to the illusion that appearance is beauty; to the restlessness of contemporary society. I read it in a breath and I was captivated.’ Ayşegül Savaş, author of The Anthropologists
‘The world of this horrifying novel has been built piece by perfect piece – honey-coloured floorboards, a monstera’s perforate leaves, glossy white tiles, a breakfast of assorted seeds, a game of Carcassonne – the method of its construction likewise perfect, a perfection of prose that ends by releasing, miraculously, the very thing perfection is made to prohibit, the heavy stink of mortality.’ Kathryn Davis, author of Aurelia, Aurélia
‘Masterful…Quite brilliant.’ Dylin Hardcastle, ABC RN The Bookshelf
‘Latronico has a sharp eye for socio-cultural critique.’ Bram Presser
‘I’m calling it, [Perfection is] going to be this summer’s cool-girl novel.’ Divya Venkataraman
‘A fun, quick read which made me wince in recognition.’ Finding Time to Write
‘Observant, analytical…[Latronico’s] style is witty, occasionally acerbic, but never unkind or pompous.’ ANZ Litlovers
‘ is dense with ideas, feelings, political insights, beautiful turns of phrase, unexpected observations about ordinary occurrences.’ New Yorker
‘Never succumbs to the temptation of ridiculing its protagonists. Whether or not they live in Berlin, many of its readers will belong to the same class and generation as they do, and bald contempt is generally less effective at inducing the discomforts of recognition than keen, tactful observation.’ New York Times
‘Latronico is biting and withering, a funny critic of certain habits of mind and social conventions, which works especially well for the Berlin expat set…What’s notable about Latronico’s experiment is that by borrowing Perec’s mode of caricature—exporting it into the present—he shows something universal about generations and their anxieties.’ Washington Post
‘Latronico’s conceit is clever and will delight anyone familiar with his source material, but his execution is ingenious.’ Alice Gregory, New Yorker
‘A wry exploration of modern life, leaving the reader questioning what can bring meaning in an era where even authenticity feels commodified.’ NZ Booklovers

Vincenzo Latronico was born in Rome in 1984 and lived for a number of years in Berlin. He is an art critic and has translated many books into Italian, by authors such as George Orwell, Oscar Wilde, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hanif Kureishi. Perfection is his fourth novel, the first to be translated into English. He lives in Milan.Sophie Hughes has translated Spanish and Latin American authors such as Fernanda Melchor, Alia Trabucco Zeran and Enrique Vila-Matas. She was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2019 and 2020, and in 2021 she was awarded the Queen Sofia Translation Prize. Perfection is her first translation from Italian.

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