The imperfectionists, by Tom Rachman

In 1953, and Atlanta businessman named Cyrus Ott arrives in Rome to discuss starting a new English-language international newspaper with an expatriate married couple he knew twenty years previously. The episodic chapters in the book trace the fortunes of both the paper and those who work for it, and three generations of the Ott family's involvement in their investment. From a shaky start, the paper reaches a respectable circulation over the years, but another "character" in the book is the decline of the newspaper industry itself during the past decades, as other media, and more importantly, online publication, changes the way news is delivered and written. At times comic, at times tragic, and always somewhat quirky, the interconnected chapters focus on one or another of the paper's employees and owners. One comes to understand and care about them -- even the unfortunate bassett, Schopenhauer, and the odious Rich Snyder. 288 pp.