"I want to talk about a newspaper."
"Which one?"
"My own," Ott answered. "I intend to start one. An international English-language newspaper. Based in Rome and sold around the world."
And so the story unfolds, and with it, the lives of the owners, editors, and reporters over the course of the next 50+ years. Each chapter, with a wonderful newspaper headline at the beginning, has a surprising twist. Together, they resemble interwoven short stories written by a literary master. We come to know and care about every character depicted--quite a feat for a fledgling novelist in his first book.
The Imperfectionists is a character-based novel which contains some mystery--namely, the true reason for the paper's inception. In the end, it is about the demise of a newspaper, the victim of mismanagement and the digital age. Yet, it is also about the surprises and pitfalls in life, the imperfections in us all, and ultimately, the resiliency of the human spirit.
