London: Fitzcarraldo Editions 2025
\n115 pages
\nISBN 978-1-80427-104-9<\/p>\n
This time at Donostia Book Club we\u2019re reading a 2022 Italian short novel shortlisted for 2025 Booker Prize: Perfection<\/a> by Vincenzo Latronico<\/strong>. Translated by Sophie Hughes<\/strong> and published in England by an independent publisher Fitzcarraldo Editions it called critics attention with its thought-provoking satire of a millenial lifestyle.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It\u2019s a book that could without any doubt be called a sociological observation and focuses on how empty life can feel when you pursue happiness without really knowing what you\u2019re after. Anna and Tom are expats living in Berlin what they, at least at the beginning, think to be a perfect life. But as time passes they feel growing dissatisfaction, lack of commitment, they see no perspectives for the future. They try to recreate the excitement of the first days in Germany in another country, but it seems that it doesn\u2019t work for them any more. Is returning to their own country a valid option? Were they fed with inaccessible dreams when they were younger? They find out that having an \u201cInstagrammable\u201d life is not really so perfect in real life, but they don\u2019t know what direction to take after that.<\/p>\n If you would like to talk about this representation of a specific millenial lifestyle and how accurate you believe it to be, Donostia Book Club meeting is on Monday, February 9<\/strong>. Among other things we are going to try to answer these questions:<\/p>\n London: Fitzcarraldo Editions 2025 115 pages ISBN 978-1-80427-104-9 This time at Donostia Book Club we\u2019re reading a 2022 Italian short novel shortlisted for 2025 Booker Prize: Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico. Translated by Sophie Hughes and published in England by an independent publisher Fitzcarraldo Editions it called critics attention with its thought-provoking satire of a millenial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":24263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eleberria"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24260"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24266,"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24260\/revisions\/24266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\n
\n \n - Perfection contains no dialogue, instead exclusively favouring rich and\r\n detailed description of inanimate objects. In an interview with the\r\n Guardian, Vincenzo Latronico says, \u2018I have a terrible ear for dialogue\r\n and can never quote verbatim what somebody said, even at important\r\n moments of my life. But I memorise details of clothing immediately;\r\n description, more than dialogue, resonates with what seems salient to\r\n me in the world.\u2019 How did you find the experience of reading the novel\r\n with no speech?<\/span><\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\n- Latronico never refers to Anna and Tom individually; he always refers\r\n to them as a couple, with the reader unable to comprehend the couple\u2019s\r\n separate personalities beyond their superficial experiences, habits and\r\n purchases. Latronico told Hungarian Literature Online that providing\r\n distance between the reader and the main protagonists was deliberate\r\n on his part. \u2018We are used to reading literature through this mechanism\r\n of liking the characters, of supporting them, being on their side. But it\u2019s\r\n not the only way to write. I think that I didn\u2019t want you to like them, I\r\n wanted you to see them.\u2019 Do you understand Latronico\u2019s decision for\r\n portraying the characters in this way? Did you find that you saw Anna\r\n and Tom for who they were, and did you like them?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\n- It is never revealed in the book which country Anna and Tom originally\r\n came from, with Latronico only alluding that they are from a southern\r\n European country. Why do you think he left this information out of the\r\n novel? <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\n- Even though they had been living in Berlin for many years, Anna and\r\n Tom never fully integrate into German society. Their friends are mostly\r\n other expats, their knowledge of the German language is minimal, and\r\n they have stopped consuming media from their home country or Berlin,\r\n instead concentrating on American and other international news sites.\r\n Why do you think they are unable to fully engage with their life in Berlin?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\n- There is a period in which Anna and Tom become involved in the\r\n humanitarian crisis surrounding refugees, after they become aware of\r\n a photograph of a drowned boy on a beach. They volunteer at a centre\r\n set up for the refugees, but acknowledge that they \u2018found it increasingly\r\n hard to feel useful,\u2019 questioning whether their involvement had really been\r\n more about themselves. But as they posted photos on social media, \u2018they\r\n would watch the likes and shares go up, and still feel sure they were doing\r\n the right thing\u2019. To what extent did their participation seem genuine, or was\r\n largely performative volunteerism to gain recognition and validation online?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\nQuestions taken from: <\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\r\nhttps:\/\/thebookerprizes.com\/the-booker-library\/features\/reading-guide-perfection-by-vincenzo-latronico-translated-by-sophie-hughes<\/a><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/pre>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"