The Perfect Circle

In the round house on Via Saterna, its Palladian square exterior nothing but a trompe-l'oeil, the sun pierces through the central skylight. Its rays pass three floors unobstructed, before reaching the circle below at the heart of the house: four fingers of water filling a little silver basin. It is here that young Lidia dies, setting an end to her clandestine love affair with the ambitious architect. It is this house that real-estate agent Irene is asked to sell, decades later, as the climate catastrophe escalates, cloaking the divided city in a permanent orange haze. Returning to her native Milan for the sale, Irene feels the brunt of her father's judgement. He is a proud Italian and prouder architect--how could his own daughter make a living selling cultural patrimony to the highest foreign bidder? As she faces this new Milan and the old family tensions she had avoided while living in Rome, Irene throws herself into the impossible sale, getting to know Via Saterna intimately--this space that is as unsettling as it is hostile, with the slowly emerging traces of Lidia's interrupted life. In every room of the house, the burden of a mysterious, unresolved past can be felt, remnants of a selfish and manipulative love. The Perfect Circle tackles themes like time, death, and repetition with depth and originality, while carrying its philosophy lightly. Through it all, the novel is a subtly disturbing page-turner, every new page adding a new layer and twist.

Claudia Petruccistudied Modern Letters in Milan before moving to Perth, Australia. Her reportages and short stories--which range from realistic to experimental to science fiction--have been published on Cadillac, minima&moralia, and elsewhere. Her debut novel, The Performance, also published by World Editions, was shortlisted for the John Fante Award and won the prestigious Premio Flaiano Giovani in Italy.

Anne Milano Appel, based in California, has translated works by a number of leading Italian authors for a variety of publishers in the US and UK. Among her recent translations are works by the award-winning Antonio Scurati, Claudio Magris and Paolo Maurensig. Her awards include the Italian Prose in Translation Award, the John Florio Prize for Italian Translation, and the Northern California Book Award for Translation.