It’s hard not to think there will always be a place for the Rachmans of the literary world. Storytelling itself is still vitally important in so many different forms, but there are endless different competing entertainments and distractions and diversions and cultural flare-ups that mean it’s going to be harder than ever to get people to really pay attention.” “I sit at my desk isolated from the world, but obsessing about the world, thinking about all the people out there and trying to capture something of it to say. Speaking via Zoom from his home in London, Rachman, a 48-year-old journalist turned novelist with a vast store of imagination and empathy, says it all comes back to storytelling-even as he often finds himself wondering if anyone out there is listening. Rachman breathes life into Dora Frenhofer, a lonely 73-year-old Dutch novelist, who then breathes life into her characters, who are themselves all writers-of poetry, of stand-up comedy routines, of fabricated news stories and restaurant reviews and sports articles. Spirited, moving, and highly original, The Imperfectionists will establish Tom Rachman as one of our most perceptive, assured literary talents.Reading Tom Rachman’s new novel The Imposters (Little, Brown, June) is like witnessing a high-wire alchemy act. And in the shadows is the isolated young publisher who pays more attention to his prized basset hound, Schopenhauer, than to the fate of his family’s quirky newspaper.Īs the era of print news gives way to the Internet age and this imperfect crew stumbles toward an uncertain future, the paper’s rich history is revealed, including the surprising truth about its founder’s intentions. Out in the field, a veteran Paris freelancer goes to desperate lengths for his next byline, while the new Cairo stringer is mercilessly manipulated by an outrageous war correspondent with an outsize ego.

Kathleen, the imperious editor in chief, is smarting from a betrayal in her open marriage Arthur, the lazy obituary writer, is transformed by a personal tragedy Abby, the embattled financial officer, discovers that her job cuts and her love life are intertwined in a most unexpected way. Look in the back of the book for a conversation between Tom Rachman and Malcolm Gladwellįifty years and many changes have ensued since the paper was founded by an enigmatic millionaire, and now, amid the stained carpeting and dingy office furniture, the staff’s personal dramas seem far more important than the daily headlines.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY From the author of The Italian Teacher, this acclaimed debut novel set in Rome follows the topsy-turvy lives of the denizens of an English language newspaper.

The imperfectionists by tom rachman