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

A beautiful story, a spellbinding book

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Definitely recommended. The story is compelling, and the characters are people to care about.

What did you like best about this story?

Pasquale Tursi's sweetness was the best part for me. I get very tired of revolting characters; Pasquale is the opposite, a person to love.

Which scene was your favorite?

Pasquale and Dee in the abandoned gun turret was a scene so beautifully rendered that I felt I was there with them, seeing sunlight hit the paintings on the wall.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I stayed glued to the book, emotions shifting, but never in a violent way.

Any additional comments?

The story and the narrator meld together to provide an unforgettable experience for the listener. I'll wait a while, then listen to this one again . . . and again.

Interesting story

Perhaps a slow start to this novel, but as the story unwinds the pieces come together and the book becomes a page turner. This is a 4 1/2 star effort.

Good story for audio

Would you listen to Beautiful Ruins again? Why?

I enjoyed listening to Beautiful Ruins -- a nice story for audiobook where you could usually tell what time and place you were in, despite the movement of the narrative across continents and years. I didn't consider it a "masterpiece" and would not listen to it a second time, but I was definitely glad to listen to it.

I found it well-performed and paced, and at no point did I consider "putting it down," one of my personal barometers of how good an audiobook is.

Any additional comments?

This is a good book to "read" as an audiobook -- you can enjoy the story, and you don't need to see it in print to understand, or go back to refresh your memory of a complicated plot.

Depressing characters

I'm not sure why this book had the great reviews -Marketing promotion I guess. I listened to the entire book- but found every character to be depressing. And the fact that I agreed with some of the characters thoughts - had me depressed with myself. The narrator was excellent, great variation between characters, clear and easy to understand.

Great Book!

This book was a great listen. It is rich with well developed characters, nostalgia, excitement and clever twists. Beautiful ruins is a wonderful story reinforcing the idea of living every moment in the present. For days I've been quoting the characters and their wisdom. Very enjoyable and sad to see it finished.

Greatly Woven Story

What did you love best about Beautiful Ruins?

The story weaves between Italy, Los Angeles and the subjects. I LOVED how Edoardo Ballerini changes dialects throughout the book ~ and his excellent mispronounciations - it's worth it just for that. I'll definitely listen to Edoardo's other readings.

Delightful story with interesting characters

If you could sum up Beautiful Ruins in three words, what would they be?

Touching unique beautiful

What did you like best about this story?

I could see the characters, and I cared about them

What about Edoardo Ballerini’s performance did you like?

Outstanding all around, great work with different voices

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Not an option for me

A Wonderful Mix of Timelines

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS ONE SPOILER

Just being that everything ends happily. I won't say anymore, but I left the book feeing really happy and satisfied. This is a spoiler because for most of the book you have this looming feeling of everything going wrong and ending poorly. Which is actually a huge compliment to Jess Walter.

You dive through multiple characters stories, bopping back and forth. But what is amazing is Jess' ability to show the reader the same arch and feeling at the same time with each character as you flip chapter to chapter.

All the characters felt real and full of flaws, but also full of redemption. I really enjoyed this novel, and I would highly recommend this to anyone.

Sooooooooooo Enjoyable!!

I fell in love with the story and the narrator!! Edoardo Ballerini is fantastic! The pairing of Jess Walter's story with Mr. Ballerini as narrator was "magnifico"!

Love this book!

The story had beautifully written plot twists and well-developed characters. The narration is amazing.