Author(s): Tom Rachman

Novel

The Imperfectionists tells stories about the peculiar people who write and read an international newspaper based in Rome: the obituary reporter who will do anything to avoid work, the Mideast correspondent who has no clue how to produce a news story, the grumpy editors at headquarters, the devoted subscribers around the world, and the dog-obsessed publisher who seems less interested in his struggling newspaper than in his magnificent basset hound, Schopenhauer. While the news of the day rushes past - war in Iraq, terrorism, the rollercoaster economy - the true front-page stories for all of them are the blunders and triumphs of their own lives. The Imperfectionists touches on the fall of newspapers and the rise of technology but, above all, it is a moving novel about eleven unusual, endearing characters.