‘Perfection’ by Vincenzo Latronico   (2022) – 134 pages                Translated from the Italian by Sophie Hughes

I had heard or read very little about Berlin since the Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989 and the city was reunited. ‘Perfection’ showed me that a lot has been going on in Berlin since then.

Berlin has become a hot spot for techies, young professionals who can work from their apartments and set up web sites for restaurants and other businesses that want a strong internet presence.

“They were graphic designers and front-end developers and artists…”

The time of ‘Perfection’ is 2015 which was probably the height of this phenomenon as business internet sites are somewhat old hat by now.

Anna and Tom are two such young creative professionals, “a term even they found vague and jarring”. They have emigrated to Berlin from southern Europe as have many others with whom they bond. The first chapter of ‘Perfection’ describes their apartment in loving detail. Everything in the apartment is stylish and perfect from the sand-colored Berber rug to the hardwood floor boards to the luxuriant plants.

It would seem that Anna and Tom have achieved something close to perfection in their lives.

“They spent all their time in plant-filled apartments and cafes with excellent WiFi. In the long run it was inevitable they would convince themselves that nothing else existed.”

However Chapter II of ‘Perfection’ begins with:

“Reality didn’t always live up to the pictures.”

As Anna and Tom (The two names are always spoken together and never differentiated in the novel.) work on their two monitors in their lovely office, they sense a vague dissatisfaction.

“over the course of the day, more out-of-place objects and signs of slovenliness would enter their field of vision, breaking their concentration.”

And Berlin changes. In the beginning, Berlin is “their main pastime. … In many ways it defined them much more than their profession did.” As more and more young techies arrive, Berlin goes through gentrification with resulting higher rents and higher prices throughout. Of course Anna and Tom can sublet their apartment for an exorbitant rental fee.

As Anna and Tom become more dissatisfied, they decide to sublet their apartment for six months and head to another young techie hot spot in Europe – Lisbon, Portugal where they appreciate the warmer weather.

But perhaps it is not their chosen city and occupation that are causing Anna and Tom to be dissatisfied. Perhaps Anna and Tom are just getting older.

The lengthy description of Anna and Tom’s luxurious apartment at the beginning of ‘Perfection’ would probably appeal more to New Yorker readers than to me, but after that ‘Perfection’ held my complete interest.

Besides, I did want to know what was happening in Berlin these days.

Grade:    A