Perfection and the Last Gasp of Authenticity

Show notes

Tobias Haberkorn and Lauren Oyler discuss Vincenzo Latronico’s Perfection, originally published in Italian in 2022 and shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2025. The book, which follows a couple who moves to Berlin around 2010, after the Financial Crisis, has been called a defining millennial novel, praised on its literary merits, and also widely debated and intensely disliked. In this episode, Lauren and Tobias talk about why the novel is so polarizing, what it misses and whether the Berlin depicted even exists anymore.

Read: Lianna Mark's Better Living Through Self-Curation in Berlin Review: https://blnreview.de/en/ausgaben/2026-01/lianna-mark-vincenzo-latronico-international-market-perfection

Read: Cesare Sinatti's companion essay in Berlin Review: https://blnreview.de/en/ausgaben/2026-01/cesare-sinatti-latronico-perfection-italy-as-brand-cultural-imperialism-aesthetic-assimilation

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Airlift is produced in the Studio of Jacobin Germany.

Hosted by Lauren Oyler and Tobias Haberkorn, Editor of Berlin Review.