Part 1 consists almost entirely of visual descriptions of Anna and Tom’s apartment. Its title, “Present,” suggests that it is the moment when the novel actually takes place, and is the only section of the novel written in present tense. Latronico therefore represents Part 1 as what is happening now, with a potential tenant surveying a listing for Anna and Tom’s Berlin apartment. Anna and Tom consistently sublet their apartment throughout the novel for periods when they return to their home country. They sublet for slightly longer periods after the migration crisis in Part 2, for six months when they take the contract in Lisbon in Part 3, and before they return home to convert the farmhouse Anna inherits in Part 4. Based on context and timing, the moment in Part 1 is likely when they leave Berlin on a more permanent basis.

Part 1 is significant because it focuses extensively on visual details and aesthetics as represented to external viewers, introducing the theme of The Negative Effects of Social Media on Intimacy. It does not describe Anna and Tom’s Berlin apartment, but the photos of the apartment they curate for the real estate listing. The visual descriptions are therefore removed from reality. They don’t describe the thing itself, but how the thing is represented at its best and most aesthetically pleasing, reflecting the artificiality of social media and image-making. The listing’s emphasis on objects, from their kitchen appliances to their house plants, also introduces the emphasis on consumerism and material comfort, foreshadowing how the material comforts in Anna and Tom’s lives are both prominent, and yet mask an inner hollowness.

Although the novel focuses on Anna and Tom, Latronico primarily emphasizes their external rather than internal reality. Their relationship is characterized more through how they think others see them or based on comparing their own lives to other people’s. Likewise, their feelings about their job, location, and lifestyle are heavily inflected by what other people think and how they compare to curated social media. They are characterized by their surroundings and work, and their contentment is heavily dependent on the aesthetics of their environment. Part 1 introduces the detached tone of the rest of the novel and the importance of representation and beauty rather than raw emotion or unfiltered connection, reflecting the narrative’s interest in how a focus on the external can come at the cost of authenticity.

The reveal that the descriptions in Part 1 refer to images is slightly delayed. The first paragraph opens with description—“Sunlight floods the room” (5)—and concludes with the first clue that the description refers to photographs: “[P]ale rug that just creeps into the frame” (5, emphasis added). The second paragraph opens with “The next picture” (5), then the chapter proceeds through the descriptions of the apartment interior. The descriptions progress through the apartment room by room. Even though it is not immediately clear that they refer to an apartment listing, the descriptions produce the experience of viewing spaces in an apartment one at a time.

It is not until the end of the chapter that it becomes clear that the descriptions refer to photos in a rental listing: “And it is a happy life, or so it seems from the pictures in the post advertising the apartment for short-term rental at one hundred and eighteen euros a day” (10, emphasis added). Latronico explores the complexities of reality versus appearance through this delayed reveal: The bulk of the chapter suggests reality, while the reveal that it is an advertising-focused Internet post that “seems” to represent a happy life introduces doubt about the extent to which the images reflect interior reality.

The syntax and writing style is generally straightforward, focused on visual details rather than figurative language, with the detachment from the characters’ inner states reinforcing the sense of emotional emptiness and a lack of genuine connection. Simile is used sparingly throughout the novel, which makes its use notable. For example, a description in Part 1 notes that “Beauty and pleasure seem as inextricable from daily life as particles suspended in a liquid” (10). That simile is used to describe the importance of beauty to daily life emphasizes the importance of aesthetics in how Anna and Tom view each other and the world around them.