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Perfection
by Vincenzo Latronico, translated by Sophie Hughes
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"How long do you last in bed?" Those were her first words to me, swiftly followed up with, "And how big would you say you are?" Cue the record scratching, what?! Persephone Alexander. Math genius. Lover of blazers. The only girl I know who can make Heidi braids look sexy as hell. And she's on a mission. Lose her virginity by the end of the semester. I walked in on her interview session for potential candidates (who even does that?) and saw straight through her brave front. She's got a list of Firsts to accomplish like she's only got months to live. I've decided to be her guide for all her firsts except one. Someone's got to keep her out of trouble. I have one rule, no sex. We even shook on it. I'll help her find the right guy for the job.…
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"Yes, it is indeed a skewering of the contemporary millennial lifestyle as it pertains to digital nomads in the gig economy—they’re even front-end engineers, the ‘superficial layer’ of tech—but I really hope that when people read this very entertaining novel that they also take note of the sharp critiques of privilege throughout, like that indelible description of that world-infamous image of the drowned Syrian child on the beach. The funny thing was that none of the judges noticed the lengths of the books we chose for the longlist until we saw them all together. Slim books are very common in East Asia, so I thought nothing of it, but I guess I do now see that publishers in the Anglosphere are more willing to embrace shorter-length works of prose ? Welcome to the club!"
The Best Fiction Books: The 2025 International Booker Prize ·
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