Beautiful Ruins

By: Jess Walter

Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini

Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Audie Award Nominee, Fiction and Best Solo Narration, 2013

The story begins in 1962. On a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies an apparition: a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying.

And the story begins again today, half a world away, when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio's back lot - searching for the mysterious woman he last saw at his hotel decades earlier.

What unfolds is a dazzling, yet deeply human, roller coaster of a novel, spanning 50 years and nearly as many lives. From the lavish set of Cleopatra to the shabby revelry of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Walter introduces us to the tangled lives of a dozen unforgettable characters: the starstruck Italian innkeeper and his long-lost love; the heroically preserved producer who once brought them together and his idealistic young assistant; the army veteran turned fledgling novelist, and the rakish Richard Burton himself, whose appetites set the whole story in motion - along with the husbands and wives, lovers and dreamers, superstars and losers, who populate their world in the decades that follow.

Gloriously inventive, constantly surprising, Beautiful Ruins is a story of flawed yet fascinating people, navigating the rocky shores of their lives while clinging to their improbable dreams.

©2012 Jess Walter (P)2012 HarperCollins Publisher

An Original Fabulous Story

I loved, loved, loved this story - for several reasons. The character development. The narrator - fabulous narrator, makes me want to learn Italian and go to this quaint little village in Italy (although I believe it's fictional and doesn't exist). The characters - each with a great story. The surprises - characters and back stories were brought in that I was not expecting.
No murders (well sorta - read it and you will see what I mean). No violence (other than that one time but. . . . ). No sex. NOT ONE cuss word. (How refreshing - not that I couldn't watch my language a lot more!) No politics. A story that didn't relay on any of those things or gimmicks. A love story. A story about family. Lost love. Hollywood. Italy.
I don't really know what I was expecting but not something of this caliber. It's a story you want to to not stop listening to yet you don't want it to end. It's one of those stories where you feel personally involved with all the characters and it's a story that stays with you.
The narrator is superb. Because of him, and the story, this is one I know i will listen to again some day. The story is so pleasant and enjoyable. It was what I was looking for because I'd grown very tired of all the murders and gratuitous violence and sex. Usually I like a good murder mystery with a some sex, I'm not a prude, but I was just tired of bullets through the eye, back of the head blown off, detailed sexual encounters, you get my drift.
Read it before Hollywood ruins it with a movie cause you know they will make a movie out of it. It's that kind of great story.
It's never dull and has you waiting for what happens next.
Listen to it. I think you will love it. Now I have to buy it in hardcover because it's one I want on my bookshelf too!

Very enjoyable

I felt the author did a good job pulling all of the characters together. I enjoyed the entire story and the ending was superb.

Achingly beautiful

Well written and thought provoking, with a good plot and intriguing characters. The intertwining of story lines comes together at the end with a predictable but welcome ending!

Long journey worth the time!

What did you like best about this story?

The characters are fully developed and tell their individual stories as they flow together and apart. Interesting back and forth in time. A few times I lost my way but was able to catch up without missing anything.

Any additional comments?

Excellent narrator kept me coming back!

Not great but enjoyable

This story line was good but it seemed, to me, to have too many characters. At times I got a bit confused. Also, a bit too much information about sub (and sub - sub) characters especially the last chapter.
But the narrator did a great job with all these voices. I really liked his voice.
One thing I was curious about and did not get in the audio was this: How can you use the name of someone like Richard Burton, was this a true story? If yes or no it would have been nice to at least mention it.
Still, all in all, this was an enjoyable listen.

beautiful

It stated out slow, but then I couldn't stop listening to it. loved it. and the narrator was excellent.

wonderful

One of the most beautifully written storiy I've had the pleasure of listing to and a long time.

Enchanting, romantic, reminiscence….

I loved everything about the this book. How it captured me from the very first chapter, how all the characters came full circle, it was romantic, reminiscent ….. definitely one of my favorites.

Tina

Nice

If you’re patient, this is an enchanting book. A story that goes back and forth from the 60s to present day with a cast of likable characters. My favorite part was the talk of inflated language, why cheapen the word “amazing” by using it on something as simple as a sandwich.

Hotel Adequate View!

Brilliant name for a hotel. Great storytelling and character development. Beautifully narrated. Enjoyed the historical references. Highly recommend.