Open Pinterest and search anything along the lines of ‘interior design’, ‘Berlin lifestyle’ and ‘young creatives’ and the images shown will sum up what the entire novella is about. Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico is a short and humorous but also thoughtful tale about a young couple, Anna and Tom who move to Berlin as creative web designers. We don’t know too much about their lives before Berlin but we are told that they are from a large city in Southern Europe, perhaps Spain or Italy, they feel a motivation to move after feeling bored with the same routines and people and want a change. On the surface, they are living the millennial expat dream, their apartment is in the trendy Neukölln district, filled with cultural capital, full of plants, Scandinavian furniture and books on art and photography. Their job allows them to work from home and set their own working hours, and the pay is good with a constant influx of different clients in Berlin and across the world. They’re friends with other local expats, Spanish, French and some American, who live in the area and work similar jobs in the creative industry and the common social hubs include art gallery openings, vegetarian restaurants and lush cafes. Weekends often include nights out to KitKat and Berghain clubs, strolls around Tempelhof and coffees on the balcony.

They are very proud of the lifestyle that they have built up, a rich and vivid documentation of their lives which the share on social media to friends and family back home, over time their usage of social media sites increase and they can’t seem to stop and feel ashamed at the lack of self-control. But they feel the need to share to the world what they are doing. Excuses would be created, it would inspire creativity they thought, to keep up with world (American) affairs. They never really interacted with German news. Their digital and physical lives are weaved into one.

But over time, cracks start to form. It starts with their friendships, what once was a diverse group of people with ambition and similar goals met on Facebook groups slowly turns into hollow and shallow friendships. Conversations at gallery openings are kept light, discussions of money are strictly never brought up and people seemingly come and go on nights out. It doesn’t make sense, these people are also creatives, expats and liberal. There’s so much in common but nothing ever forms of them. Subtle rearrangements occurred. People went home, especially in the winter, some have kids. Anna and Tom eventually spent more time indoors, working and just being with each other. The easy friendships turned out to be perhaps too easy.

Eventually they started to get bored of their routines in the city, then begins the hunt for excitement and novelty. They get into cooking for no apparent reason, they go to sex clubs but don’t enjoy it. They protest, but this amounts to nothing more than signing petitions and not eating tuna. When the 2015 European Migrant Crisis hits Berlin it gives them a fresh sense of purpose. They volunteer, they discuss with their friend group what they can do to help. Forms and charity donation points flood their feeds. But they start to wonder if what they are doing is actually helping them. On top of all this, Berlin is changing as well. The new expats are increasingly from the Anglosphere, gentrification moves rapidly across the city, Hamburger joints replaced local restaurants, the menus only in English. The rent increases and Anna and Tom are forced to work longer hours.

Eventually they decide to take drastic measures. They move to Lisbon, the ‘new Berlin’. A smaller but more trendy place with a climate more like home. But despite the shift Anna and Tom are left with the same empty feeling, their routines are the same and they feel isolated despite the like-minded people that flock to the city. A further trip to Sicily is made, but the constant old houses and sea-side restaurants don’t do it for them. The book ends on a sort of positive note. Upon inheriting a farmhouse from Anna’s uncle. They take this as an opportunity to start renting out the place as presumably an Air-BnB. They decorate it to the same standard and skill as their Neukölln apartment, the positive reviews come in, its just like the pictures, perfect.

Ultimately, Perfection is a story about the dissatisfaction about a materialist life. I don’t feel particularly sorry for Anna and Tom, their pay is good and they have no obligations to a boss or company. They are often labled as forgettable but that is the point. Their struggle to find meaning afflicts so many in the millennial generation and will soon come to Gen-Z. The solution is a tricky one, in the modern age where it’s increasingly common to have an abundance of things and services, happiness and fulfilment does not increase at the same rate. The book ends on a positive but inconclusive note, do Anna and Tom eventually get dissatisfied with the farmhouse? We don’t know, maybe they will move to other ventures or finally settle down as they get older. But overall this book serves as a good and humorous critique of the constant chase for novelty.

The future appeared out of focus. They couldn’t imagine it being substantially different to their current life - so smooth and manicured - which itself made it seem rather abstract and unenticing.