

1⭐️ It was a mistake to read this after reading Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont. This pretty book bored me to death 😭 and it reads like a short paper about modern life.
1⭐️ It was a mistake to read this after reading Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont. This pretty book bored me to death 😭 and it reads like a short paper about modern life.
I absolutely adore Fitzcarraldo Editions and this was no exception. A couple moves to Berlin from the southern Mediterranean as part of the new creative/design class and then follows them as they become disillusioned with the effects on community and place that they and their generation created. It is a scathing critique on the gentrification and generic sameness that grew out of the last twenty years and the blindness of those that created it.
This tale of millennial angst & dissatisfaction is based on the debut novel (Things) by Georges Perec.
Anna & Tom have all the trappings of a good life, but struggle to find contentment in a world of social media and expectation.
Sometimes a little overexplained, this short novel manages to pack in a great deal of social commentary and uses the couple as a single protagonist to discuss the modern condition.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Video review up at 7pm GMT
Bought this because of the cover. My next read 🏖️
Just your average weekend, judging Eastern Canadian Trampoline Gymnastics Championships with some good books in between flights of athletes. Fun watching all these kids who have worked so hard, representing their province.
I don‘t think this book was for me, I didn‘t love it as much as everyone else.
Couple is living the dream life in Berlin having gotten in before the rent increases. Actually this couple annoyed me, not realizing how lucky they are and not working more than they need.
I also felt that this book only told what happened, and there were no dialogue. Which apparently I didn‘t enjoy here.
Tom and Anna are Italian graphic designers, who moved to Berlin because it‘s the place to be. They live a life that confronts me with living in Amsterdam: all the trends, the hip & happening, the urban nomads, the gentrification, the coffee everywhere, the underground raves, the emptiness of it all. A mirror for me of who I used to be not that long ago. A great start of the #InternationalBooker longlist!
#FictionalTraveler #BigCity