Dinner & A Book - The Imperfectionists

Join me and my guest, journalist, Marshall King, as we prepare some Roman food as a setting for Tom Rachman's behind the scenes look at newspaper journalism in The Imperfectionists on Dinner and a Book.

Set against the backdrop of Rome, Tom Rachman's The Imperfectionists follows the private lives of 11 reporters, editors and executives of an international English-language newspaper as they struggle to keep it afloat. We follow their personal lives: editor in chief Kathleen, obituary writer Arthur, the embattled financial officer, Abbey, the inexperienced new Mideast stringer who is seeking terrorists to interview and the burned out Burko who goes to desperate lengths for his next byline. The true protagonist is the newspaper, an international paper that looks like the International Herald Tribune.

Printing presses whirr, ashtrays smolder, and the endearing complexity of humanity plays out. Set against the backdrop of a fictional English-language newspaper, it begins as a celebration of the beloved and endangered role of newspapers and the original 24/7 news cycle. The chaos of the newsroom becomes a stage for characters unified by a common thread of circumstance, with each chapter presenting an affecting look into the life of a different player.