Beautiful Ruins: A Novel

The #1 New York Times bestseller--Jess Walter's "absolute masterpiece" (Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author): the story of an almost-love affair that begins on the Italian coast in 1962 and resurfaces fifty years later in contemporary Hollywood.

The acclaimed, award-winning author of the national bestseller The Financial Lives of the Poet...show more

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337 pages

Average rating: 7.02

121 RATINGS

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2 REVIEWS

Community Reviews

margardenlady
Dec 27, 2023
8/10 stars
Coming of age can happen at any age, I suppose. This novel was filled with characters longing for lives they couldn't quite sustain, lives of truth and joy and love. Instead, we witness their series of bad decisions and unfortunate circumstances as they mushroom. The sleaze of Hollywood, the beauty of the Cinque Terre,the vagaries of war, the terror that adulthood sometimes brings all play into the myriad lives portrayed here. I didn't love it, ...read more
Anonymous
Dec 04, 2023
10/10 stars
The blurb on the front of the book reads

"A Literary Miracle"

I'm inclined to agree. I put off reading this book until the 11th hour, for no particular reason (perhaps because I had seen the words "love story"). I'm very glad I picked it up and gave it a chance.

We begin in 1962, as a dying young actress arrives by boat to Porto Vergogna to stay at The Hotel Adequate View. Pasquale Tursi is out building his beach to try and bring in American tourist...read more

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