Object lesson

An expat couple curate their lives by plants and Radiohead LPs in this deliciously pessimistic chronicle of Berlin life

Thomas McMullan

Anna and Tom are expats living in Berlin in the 2010s. As freelance digital creatives, their Neukölln flat is affordable, their windowsills are plant-lined, their armchairs are Danish mahogany. Their social lives are curated around gallery openings for art they do not much care about, cooking and the occasional attempt at an orgy. Perfection is Berlin-based Italian writer Vincenzo Latronico’s fourth novel, his first to be translated into English, here by Sophie Hughes. The book artfully lays out Anna and Tom’s quotidian existence in forensic, deadpan style, from the limited edition of Radiohead’s In Rainbows facing outwards in their LP collection to their reclaimed-wood dining table, lain with raw cotton cloth. Theirs is a life defined through a keen outward projection of taste. Over 10 years, as Berlin becomes increasingly…

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Guardian Weekly (Digital) - 1 Issue, 14 February 2025

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