This week I chose a book that has been sitting on my shelf for over a year! I finally read The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman. After hearing great things about it for so long, I was happy to make the time to read it, and it definitely did not disappoint. Set in the office of an international newspaper, this novel employs the immediacy and chaos of the newsroom to explore the complexities of human nature and relationships.
Reading The Imperfectionists is kind of like piecing together a puzzle, as it is broken up into short interlacing stories (one for each main character.) Though this format should have made the novel choppy and discontinuous, the ways in which Rachman weaves his characters together made it an easy and satisfying read. From a publisher to a lowly copy editor to a reader of this fictional newspaper, Rachman has created a group of flawed and realistic (but still lovable) characters. I loved how every chapter ended with the discovery of a jaw-dropping connection to a previous installment. The combination of the novel’s format and the clever weaving-together of standalone stories made The Imperfectionists my favorite book so far.