There is something hypnotic about this dystopian novel. Petrucci builds a story inside a house that feels alive, a Palladian square hiding a perfect circle at its center. That image stayed with me the entire time I was reading.

The novel moves between two women separated by decades. Lidia, trapped in a love that burns, dies in that circular room at the bottom of the house. Irene, a real estate agent returning to Milan, is asked to sell the mansion in a city drowning in an orange haze and the effects of climate change. The house becomes the hinge, a space that holds everything unresolved, everything unspoken. Petrucci includes the house like a character.

Irene’s chapters felt especially sharp. Her father’s judgment, the pressure of returning to her hometown, while Milan itself feels on the verge of collapse. Her sections are claustrophobic. Meanwhile, Lidia’s story grows in haunting fragments, each new detail revealing the manipulation that shaped her last days.

What I loved most was that the book is that the story works like a slow echo between the two women. Every time Irene steps deeper into that house, she steps closer to Lidia’s unfinished life. Every page adds one more layer.

This one is quietly unsettling and beautifully constructed. Perfect for anyone who likes their literary fiction with a ghostly undertone.

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Lots of shapes in this; circles (titularly), triangles, squares? Maybe.

Anyway I loved it, this had everything I could have wanted: mystery, real estate, lesbians? Maybe.

I really enjoyed the structure of this, moving forwards in the ‘present’ while backwards in the ‘past’ to unwind a story in both directions to come together to a shocking, satisfying but believable ending. I found all the character arcs engaging and well combined together to create a believable web of relationships that drive the story forward. The setting was also immaculate, dropping enough hints to the setting without feeling the need to explicitly tell us what’s happened and what it all means. I don’t know if there’s other stories coming from this world but I’m eager for it!!

Definitely a recommended read from me

✨🏛️ The Perfect Circle by Claudia Petrucci is a beautifully eerie story where two women in different timelines become connected through one strange and unforgettable house in Milan.

Irene returns home to sell an unsellable mansion, only to find the place pulsing with traces of Lidia, a young woman who died there decades earlier in the middle of a secret and destructive love affair.

As Irene navigates family tension, climate chaos and her own doubts, the past begins to surface in ways she cannot ignore.

I loved the structure of this book. The present moves forward while the past moves backward, each chapter revealing another secret until both timelines meet in a clever and satisfying ending.

The characters feel rich and real, their lives intersecting in a web of ambition, betrayal and desire. The setting is immaculate too, full of subtle clues that build an atmosphere of quiet dread without ever over explaining.

If you enjoy literary mysteries with a touch of the uncanny, layered storytelling and stories where houses keep their memories close, this one is a brilliant pick.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

This is a beautifully written book that takes on multiple themes.

This book is about longing. Longing for a feeling you expect to have after doing everything right, and realizing it never arrives. Longing for a connection that is supposed to be there, but fades away. Longing for a future that never came.

This book is about, to borrow a term from Henrike Kohpeiß, the bourgeois coldness of a woman who has the privilege to ignore the environmental crisis around her, an emotional detachment, an indifference to the perpetual fog hovering over Milan, protected by the social and material privilege that allow her to remain untouched by the crisis she is living in.

But, more than anything, I think this book is about memories. The persistence of it. How intricately it is tied to objects and imbues meaning to it, to otherwise cold concrete or stagnant water or dusty paintings. And yet how it persists even after an object is destroyed, long after people have come and gone.

I absolutely recommend this book. Thoughtful, elegantly written, and reflective.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, World Editions, for providing an ARC of this book.

There are so many layers to The Perfect Circle. Dystopian, disturbing, intriguing, I enjoyed the storyline. I admit, I did not see where it was going. Very well.done.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Perfect Circle is a beautifully written, atmospheric novel that lingers long after the final page. Rich in setting and mood, it weaves together architecture, memory, and unresolved grief with quiet intensity. Thought-provoking and original, this is a reflective, immersive read that rewards patience.

I was SUPER excited to receive the ARC for The Perfect Circle, but I’ll admit, I was a little skeptical for about the first 20% of the book. The dialogue at times felt a little awkward, but I think that may be due to this being a translation from Italian to English and not necessarily the writers fault (or maybe that’s just how Italians speak lol). There was also a conversation in the beginning with Irene and her friend that essentially went - Francesca: you should have kids Irene: I don’t want kids Francesca: but you should look into ivf Irene: well I guess now’s the time to get pregnant, I should look into ivf. Like I said, I think the translation may be part of the problem, but the complete 180 in Irene’s attitude was really confusing and not explained at all at that point.
HOWEVER, once I got about 20-25% and the plot really started developing I completely forgot about all of that. Dual timelines that connect in certain aspects is one of my favorite types of narratives and I really think Claudia Petrucci did a great job. All of the female characters felt very alive and complex, while the male characters often felt kind of flat and weren’t super integral to the plot, almost like they were just there to help progress the women’s stories and nothing else. It was obvious you were supposed to care and pay attention to the women, and it was refreshing.
Overall this was my first translated read, so I’m not too sure how to feel about the quality of the writing as it’s not in the authors native language, but the plot and characters were amazing. I would definitely recommend this to anyone.

This speculative literary novel is slow to start, but the story crept up and astonished me.

Petrucci’s writing is subtle, meticulous, with a detached quality that mirrors her present-day protagonist, Irene. In a second plot line set in 1985-6, Lidia owns the house that Dario is rebuilding, and the two are involved in a passionate affair. The emotional prologue is so unlike the restrained introduction to Irene’s character as to be jarring. Lidia and Dario’s story is told is reverse order, beginning the book with her tragic death and ending with their first meeting. When this affair is at its most passionate, Irene is almost a blank; set against each other, the former seems overwrought while the latter struggles to be interesting.

Once Irene is in Milan, the book begins to come alive. This coincides with a closer look at 7 Via Saterna, the same house Lidia once owned. Irene’s work auctioning grand buildings is fittingly removed from the creation process, instead focused on precise re-creation of how the space looked when occupied. Scenes of Irene cataloguing 7 Via Saterna’s contents and setting it to rights are fascinating, and further demonstrate her controlled character. Also in this space is Lidia, a student who mysteriously shares a name and age with the former owner. This Lidia temporarily resides in the house and begs Irene for permission to stay, Irene thaws while they share the work of restoration, and soon the young woman is taking Irene to Milanese monuments outside the checkpoints of her family’s and Via Saterna’s wealthy neighbourhood.

Petrucci’s spatial descriptions are wonderful. The house is a primary setting, distinguished by spiral staircase lighted by skylight three floors above is a grand image, made alluring by the glimmer of water from a central pool. In the present day, thick smog clouds the air over Italy and the skylight is ineffective. Outside, the fog obscures buildings that once thrust into the skyline. Petrucci invites the reader to reflect on human design as a way of adapting the natural environment: controlling light, water, the body through the use of concrete materials. Irene attempts to separate the people from the environment, but later seems to sense this conflict, for when she takes display photos of the property, she places the second Lidia back into them, capturing the body like it is part of the building’s anatomy.

Through the female characters (Lidia and Lidia, Irene, a friend and a sister), Petrucci choreographs a motif of youth and aging. Irene peeks at Lidia with a yearning for lost time that surfaces also when she contemplates pregnancy and when her sister urges vaginal botox. The book seems to say that Irene can remember the sun, but is inert; Lidia is plagued by hopelessness, but could do and be far more. There is the dead girl, who has the everything, sun included, but doesn’t live; and there is Carla, Dario’s wife, who is defined by her adherence to a heteronormative family role.

Where all of Petrucci’s characters are hazy as the fog outside, there is greater uncertainty around the men. Lidia’s one-time fiancé has little influence on her. Irene notes her father’s disappointment without much reaction. She leaves her boyfriend’s messages unread. Via Saterna’s patriarch became embroiled in debt and disappeared. Dario is a major player only in the single context of Via Saterna; without Lidia as lover and muse, he’s obscure. It’s a novel of confident women navigating space constructed by absent men. Petrucci is masterful in describing the edges and adding details until we see the whole design.

The Perfect Circle is an intelligent and convincing story that explores its themes well. I look forward to a reread and/or more by the author.

I received an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, World Editions, Claudia Petrucci, and Anne Milano Appel for the opportunity.

This intriguing and atmospheric novel centres on a mysterious house in Milan and the secrets hidden within its unusual design. The story follows Irene Sartori, a real-estate agent who specialises in selling historic Italian properties to wealthy international buyers. When she is asked to find a buyer for a strange, long-unsold mansion, she becomes drawn into the building’s unsettling history. As Irene investigates the property and its past, another narrative slowly emerges from decades earlier, involving a tragic death and a complicated love affair linked to the house. Decades earlier, a young woman named Lidia died after falling down the stairwell of the same house, ending a secret relationship with an ambitious architect. All this is set against climate change which has resulted in the city being cloaked in a strange orange case, adding to the unsettling atmosphere. The novel moves cleverly between the two timelines, but although I was intrigued by the premise at the start, by the end I was getting confused and found the plot more and more unconvincing. Intriguing and atmospheric, yes, but overall it didn’t work for me.

This was a fun and well-structured book. We get to to see two storylines, one set in the 1980s and one in the near future, one going up a spiral staircase and the other coming down, intertwining and neatly coming together. Finishing the book gave the satisfaction of putting in place the last stone of a beautiful home that was carefully made according to its blueprint.

The protagonist of the main storyline is a real-estate agent, working through the ever-present yellow fog of climate collapse to sell expensive buildings that will soon be taken over by nature anyway to the ultra-wealthy. Her pride in her work leads her to take on the sale of a strange home, a house that reveals its origins in the other storyline.

I really liked how climate change and threatening political developments created a realistic backdrop for this story. It's not just a good drama about connection, love and betrayal. It's also about privilege and about who's being hit earlier and harder than others due to our changing climate. It's about whether it's ethical to bring forth children in a world like this. And what kind of actions are justified to have a chance at saving yourself?

I think the opening chapter was written a bit too dramatic, which was a pity, but I quickly got sucked into the story anyway in the pages afterwards. A few conversations felt a little stilted, but it wasn't too jarring.

Overall I had a great time reading this. If you like unlikeable main characters, climate fiction, tales of revenge, and/or architecture getting woven into stories, you might like this too.

Beautiful self-referential story that spirals in and out of itself with its structure and themes. Set alternatingly between between a lightly dystopian near future where the enviromental degradation of global warming has caused extreme weather including a pervasive fog and 1985 in Milan, the central story revolves around an architecturally interesting house. The future timeline progresses linearly but the 1985 timeline is told in reverse with the stories converging finally to a dramatic and satisfyingly interconnected finale at the end.

The setting — foggy Milan and the circular house are vividly illustrated while the characters are at time distant and lost in the metaphorical and physical fog of their memories and personal lives. At times this sense of detachment was frustrating to read but it created a unique and compellingly memorable atmosphere.

The Perfect Circle combines deeper themes surrounding aging and the passage of time (personal, architectural, global), class privilege in the face of environmental destruction and temporal/spacial construction with propulsive and intriguing storytelling.

The Perfect Circle by Petrucci is a smart, atmospheric novel that blends architecture, mystery, and social commentary. Irene Satori, who auctions off crumbling mansions in Rome and Milan, is given the opportunity to sell a striking house in Milan: square on the outside, a perfect circle within, crowned by a skylight and anchored by a pool of water below. We know from the start that its first owner fell (or jumped) to her death there, and that she was entangled with the architect, Dario. The story moves between the 1980s, when the house was built, and the present-day investigation, slowly revealing what really happened.

I loved the dual timeline and the slow layering of secrets, especially Irene’s unexpected connection with Lidia, a squatter she discovers inside the home. The larger backdrop also adds depth: persistent fog in Milan, subtle but pointed nods to climate change, and a Europe of walled cities keeping refugees out. I didn’t see the major reveal coming, which made the ending especially satisfying.

I've noticed that everyone else seems to have reviewed this book as a piece of art. I am afraid I am all about the plot, which is also very clever.

Set in two timelines The Perfect Circle is the story of a house - 7 Rue in Milan. In 1985 Lidia is engaged to be married and has been given a house by her father but she wants big changes and employs architect, Dario, to bring a fresh new look to the building. But as time passes Lidia and Dario begin an affair despite Dario being married with children.

At some unnamed time in the future Irene Sartori, a real estate agent, has been charged with getting the house on Rue Saterna ready for auction. Sartori is an expert at selling historically important houses and sets about organising the unusual but unused house. However she soon finds the house has a resident - what should do about the frightened girl she finds there and what is her real story?

This book brings in so different elements, weaving the history of the house along with the girl's story and Irene's own personal circumstances with her parents and desire for a child. The book is quite short but feels like a slow burn right up until the explosive end, which took me completely by surprise.

The characters of Irene and Lidia feel quite ethereal throughout and Milan itself almost feels like another character as the strange fog that descends over the city changes the nature of everything that happens.

I really did enjoy the book and the end is excellent. Definitely recommended.

Thankyou to Netgalley and World Editions for the digital review copy.

The Perfect Circle is an atmospheric and thoughtful novel that blends mystery, family tension, and a quiet sense of unease. The setting—a haunting, architecturally striking house in a climate-scarred Milan—is one of the book’s strongest elements, creating a mood that lingers even in its quieter moments. As Irene uncovers fragments of the past, the story gradually reveals themes of loss, ambition, and the complicated ties between people and the places they inhabit.

At times, the pacing is slow, and the philosophical reflections may feel a bit heavy, but the novel’s reflective tone and eerie atmosphere keep it engaging. While not every thread feels fully resolved, the layered storytelling and sense of melancholy make it a worthwhile read for those who enjoy literary fiction with a touch of mystery.

The publisher provided ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

In the Perfect Circle you follow two women far apart in time as their two lives start to overlap and things begin to unravel. This is a book about longing, privilege and more than anything else, memory. The Perfect Circle had everything that I loved: a winding structure, an immaculate setting and satisfying character arcs. The writing was beautiful, the characters interesting and the overall tone incredibly engaging. I'll definitely be recommending this one.

The book follows Irene, a 42-year-old Italian real estate agent who specialises in selling heritage houses to wealthy investors, just as the first signs of environmental collapse begin to affect the world around her. The story unfolds across two timelines: the book’s “present” (sometime in the 2030s), when Irene takes on the sale of an unusual house built by an architect in 1985, and the story of how that house came to be.

In 1985 we witness the architect’s growing romance with the house’s owner, a woman much younger than him. In the present, Irene grapples with ageing and loneliness while trying to decide whether she still wants children. Her life becomes further unsettled when she discovers a young woman squatting in the house she has been hired to sell.

The story is deeply engaging and intimate. The writing is intense and almost visceral. There is something almost architectural about the way the narrative is constructed. Irene’s personality, with all its layers, is exquisitely shaped. Each layer reveals something unexpected while remaining entirely consistent with what came before.

The ending perhaps should not have surprised me, but it absolutely did. I was genuinely taken aback, which rarely happens to me anymore. The author builds a narrative web that quietly draws the reader in, and the skill required to achieve that is remarkable.

The only element I liked less was the broader climate-crisis setting. It never felt as though it meaningfully contributed to the story itself. At times the prose also felt slightly too clinical and distant. It is difficult to explain precisely why, but the tone seemed less warm and empathetic than the subject matter might have warranted.

I would strongly recommend this book, especially to readers who enjoy stories with unexpected turns and those interested in the inner lives of successful single women in their forties, and the fragile worlds they build for themselves.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.