The Imperfectionists are a group of people who work for, or are affiliated with, an English-language newspaper based in Rome. Each chapter presents a different character - Arthur, the lazy obituary writer, Kathleen, the imperious editor-in-chief, and Lloyd, a rather pathetic has-been, just to name a few. The individual stories and relationships intertwine, giving the reader an understanding of the many facets of human relationships. Taken together, these vignettes present a fascinating, poignant, sometimes humourous, sometimes painful, picture of 50 years in the life, and eventual death, of a newspaper. The author worked as a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press in Rome and as the editor at the International Herald Tribune in Paris, so he is well acquainted with newsroom politics and human foibles. This is a first novel by Tom Rachman and it received excellent reviews.

Loved it all, characters, setting & plot. Perfect ending for the story. Great 1st novel, great addition to the CanLit shelves. More Rachman please.

I really liked this book- each chapter tells the decades long story of the evolution of a newspaper located in Rome, Italy. Interesting characters with enough overlap in their stories to make it seem like a cohesive overall story.

This is a very well written book and I did find it entertaining, but it was really too dark and disturbing for me to enjoy it. I would hate like hell to work with Rachman or know him personally for fear of some future portrayal. He is merciless in pointing out the flawed humanity he draws so convincingly. Show me the hope!

Rachman's approach to presenting the characters was unusual, but I was left with a sense of several loose ends in some of their stories. An "imperfect" novel, perhaps?

For my money, 2011 has been the year of the debut novel. Without so intending, I've reviewed more than a few of them in this space, from Matthew Norman's smutty, snarky *Domestic Violets*, to paranormal romance sensation Deborah Harkness' *A Discovery of Witches*, to the vintage appeal and gentle romance of Erin McKean's *The Secret Lives of Dresses*, just to name a couple. I'm not sure why I've been drawn to so many of them this year; maybe it's that the authors pour so much of themselves into these novels? Whatever it is, thank goodness publishing houses have discovered them too, and decided to put the time and resources into marketing these newcomers.<br /> Perhaps the best-written debut novel I read this year is Vancouver author Tom Rachman's *The Imperfectionists*. A compact saga detailing the rise and slow decay of an English-language newspaper based in Rome, it packs a lot of humanity in under 300 pages. <br /> The novel is broken into two parallel narratives. One narrative focuses a chapter at a time on the lives of the various staff working at the paper. This is where Rachman's prose really shines – each chapter is really a character study of the personal and work life of the chapter's subject. Incredible empathy is brought to each character, even those who don't come off at all well in earlier chapters belonging to other characters. All these chapters are set at the end of George W Bush's war in Iraq, as the paper struggles to make ends meet in a fraught economic environment, battling it out in print-only format as the general news media's physical presence slowly fades to bits and evanescent silver LCD screens. Rachman slips seamlessly into the worldview of each subject, letting the personality colour his prose with humour, kindness, exhaustion, or whatever other dominant trait tints each particular worldview.<br /> Between each of the character study chapters are brief narrative chapters detailing major events in the history of the paper. These give context to the character studies, and help build anticipation as the reader moves toward the conclusion of the book – will the paper's staunch anti-electronic stance gain it a certain cachet in the market? Will staff be able to amp up their investigative skills and their feature writing to gain enough new readers? Can the paper possibly survive the strife in its Board?<br /> With a spare, empathic beauty to its writing, *The Imperfectionists* is a masterpiece of a debut novel. It's earned a place solidly within my list of top 5 reads for the year, and is well worth a glance for readers who value spare, lyrical prose in character-driven literary fiction.

insightful relationship analysis

In a word, brilliant. There are boring books and then there are boring readers, said a UW English prof in response to a student's comment that Shakespeare was "boring." This book is never boring; those who had a hard time with it or found it puzzling -- well, enough said. It's a fascinating. character-driven tour de force, if you ask me (and I do realize you didn't).

i finished the book because each chapter was almost an independent short story... and at the end i could not keep the characters straight in my mind the blurb promised a surprise ending.. well, i waited in vain for it and what happened to the art work???

Yes, the characters are imperfect. Very clever writing and interesting view of the state of the newspaper business.