997. Vincenzo Latronico

Otherppl with Brad Listi

Brad Listi

Arts, Books, Society & Culture

4.8 • 555 Ratings

🗓️ 19 October 2025

⏱️ 80 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Vincenzo Latronico is the author of the novel Perfection, available from New York Review Books. Translated by Sophie Hughes. Perfection was longlisted for the National Book Award for Translated Literature and is a finalist for the International Booker Prize. Born in Rome, Vincenzo Latronico studied philosophy at the University of Milan and has since published numerous books in Italian, including The Conspiracy of Doves and Gymnastics and Revolution. In addition to his own writing, he has also translated the work of many writers into Italian including work by George Orwell, Oscar Wilde, and Alexander Dumas. He lives in Milan. Sophie Hughes is a translator of Spanish and Italian literature. Her translation of The Remainder by Alia Trabucco Zerán was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2019, and her translation of Fernanda Melchor’s Hurricane Season was shortlisted for the same prize. Her writing and translations have appeared in McSweeney’s, The Guardian, The Paris Review, The White Review, Frieze and The New York Times. She lives in the United Kingdom. *** ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Otherppl with Brad Listi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, etc. Get ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠How to Write a Novel,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Brad's email newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Support the show on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Merch⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠proud affiliate partner of Bookshop⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	All right, everybody, welcome to the program. This is the other people show, a weekly podcast featuring in-depth conversations with today's leading writers. It's a books and culture show. I'm Brad Listy and I'm in Los Angeles. Thank you for being
0:23.5	here. I appreciate it. Hope you're doing okay, wherever you happen to be. Don't forget to hit the
0:29.4	subscribe button wherever you listen and you can follow me on Instagram and Blue Sky.
0:37.8	My guest today is Vincenzo LaTronico, author of a new novel called Perfection.
0:45.4	It is available from New York Review Books, and it was long listed for the National
0:51.7	Book Award as a work in translation.
0:53.9	It is also a finalist
0:56.5	for the Booker Prize. Perfection was written in response to a 1965 novel by George Perreck
1:05.4	called Things, a story of the 60s. Things is about mass advertising and consumer culture and the
1:14.6	impacts that these things have on a couple named Sophie and Jerome. Perfection, the new book by
1:22.6	Vincenzo LaTronico, uses Perix novel as a kind of starting point, a kind of scaffolding, and it tells the
1:29.9	story of a young couple named Anna and Tom, who are young digital creatives, who are living in
1:39.6	Berlin as expats in contemporary times.
1:44.8	They are working and searching for happiness in a world that has been flattened by social media and digital life and deadened by the relentless surface level aesthetic and material concerns of consumer culture in our hypermediated and
2:05.1	screen-addicted age. I had an absolutely wonderful conversation with Vincenzo LaTronico.
2:12.6	You don't want to miss it. It's coming up in just a bit.
2:16.8	Today's episode is brought to you by Echo Books, publisher of
2:20.2	a different kind of tension, new, and selected stories by Jonathan Letham. This is a definitive
2:27.3	collection by a master of the form. It also happens to be the official October pick of the other
2:32.6	people book club. That is my book club.
2:35.6	And you should sign up for it. Over at OtherPPL.com, get a new book delivered to your door every 30 days.
2:41.8	I interview book club authors on this program. So I will be in conversation with Jonathan Leatham in the days ahead.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Brad Listi, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Brad Listi and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.