Without a doubt Tom Rachman’s The Imperfectionists is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. This novel tells the story of an English-language international newspaper based in Rome – from its founding in 1954 by an American ex-patriot to its demise decades later. Interspersed with the tribulations of a dying newspaper (a timely story in its own right) are a series of linked vignettes about the people who work at the newspaper. It’s in the telling of these highly personal stories that Rachman’s novel truly succeeds.

The opening chapter focuses on Lloyd Burko, whose career as a Paris-based correspondent is coming to a pathetic close. His sources have dried up, he hasn’t sold an article in months, and he’s about to get kicked out of his apartment. In a last ditch effort to save his career, he cooks up a story based on loose information from a source he tries to conceal when pressed by his editors. The reader agonizes as Burko commits journalistic suicide and implicates a family member in his scheme.

Then there’s Arthur, the obituary writer who loves spending time with his daughter and will do anything to avoid the actual act of writing, until a deeply tragic family event spurs him into action. My favorite vignette tells the story of one of the newspapers’ readers, an older woman, who compulsively reads every square inch of the paper, but who is so far behind in her reading she’s forced to keep back copies stacked in a closet. She only takes down a new paper when she’s devoured the previous one, putting her at least a decade behind in her reading. This manic behavior comes to a head as she approaches the April 24, 1994 edition “a days she’s been dreading ever since it happened the first time.”

These are the imperfect characters who make up Rachman’s sparkling novel. There’s something deeply personal, sometimes funny, but always surprising revealed in these short stories. The situations are real life, so much so that it is impossible to put the book down. The most compelling aspect of the vignettes is that each character’s life takes some unexpected turn, leaving the reader both stunned and pleasantly satisfied.
The Imperfectionists is a Best of the Year candidate, for sure. ~Wendee